Today is Thursday; 6th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 9th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1439 lunar hijri; and April 26, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1897 solar years ago, on this day in 121 AD, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor was born. In 161 AD, he was declared emperor and commenced his 19-year rule that saw his generals emerge as victors of the 5-year long war (161-65) against the Parthian Empire of Iran in Armenia and Mesopotamia (Iraq), following initial Iranian victories in Syria and Anatolia (present day Turkey). The Roman success, however, was short-lived, and despite the sacking of the Iranian-controlled Greek city of Seleucia on the eastern banks of the Tigris and plunder of the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon, on the eastern banks of the same river, the Iranians soon remobilized and reclaimed lost ground, although Armenia was briefly lost. The Parthian Empire was at that time under the long 44-year rule of Balaash, known to the Romans as Vologases IV. Marcus Aurelius was the last of the supposedly 5 good emperors in Roman history.

1261 solar years ago, on this day in 757 AD, Hisham I, the 2^nd Omayyad emir of Muslim Spain was born to Abdur-Rahman I and his wife, Halul, a couple of years after his fugitive father, fleeing the persecution of his clan in Syria and Egypt by the Abbasids, arrived in Andalusia, and was welcomed by Syrian commanders. In 788, he became ruler, and faced with threats from France, sent his general Abdul-Malik ibn Abdul-Wahid ibn Mughith across the Pyrenees mountains to defeat Louis the Pious’ Carolingian mentor William of Orange. Despite this victory, the Muslims did not advance further into France as they had done half-a-century earlier, advancing till Poitiers before their historic defeat in 732. In 794, Ibn Mughith suppressed a Basque rebellion and soundly defeated the Christian principality of Asturias in southern France. Hisham died in 796 at the age of 40 after eight years as ruler.

1081 lunar years ago, on this day in 358 AH, Muttaqi-Billah, the 21^st self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime died, shortly after being deposed and blinded by the Turkic general, Tuzun, following a 4-year reign. The caliphate or political rule of the Islamic state that was snatched from its rightful inheritor, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), at the scandalous gathering of Saqifa Bani Sa'da, by a group of Sahaba – recent converts from years of idolatry – no sooner did Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) leave the mortal world, had become so insignificant after the tyrannically Godless rule of the Omayyads and the early Abbasids, that it now depended on the whims of the neo-Muslim Turkic slave guards who played havoc in Baghdad. Iran and the east had long became independent of the Abbasid caliphs; Egypt and Africa had been lost to the Fatemids, Arabia and Yemen were held by the Carmathians and local chieftains, Syria and Palestine were no longer under the caliphate, and even in Iraq there were revolts in Basra and Waset, while Mosul had become independent. In northern Syria and Anatolia, the Byzantine attempts to advance was being thwarted only because of the bravery of the Hamdanid Shi'ite Muslim dynasty whose protection Muttaqi-Billah had sought on becoming caliph. Naser od-Dowla Hamdani saw this as an opportunity to add all of Iraq to his realm and marched along with the caliph, but because of the well-organized opposition of the Turkic forces he found it difficult to control Baghdad. The caliph after wondering from city to city threw himself at the mercy of Tuzun, who broke his promise and deposed, blinded and replaced him with another puppet, al-Mustakfi-Billah.

958 lunar years ago, on this day in 481 AH, the renowned Egyptian Imami theologian, Abu’l-Qassim Abdul-Aziz Ibn Barraj Tarabulusi, passed away. He was born in Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Egypt and grew up there. He came to Iraq for higher religious studies and in Baghdad studied under such great scholars as Seyyed Murtaza and after him Abu Ja'far Shaikh at-Tayefa Tusi. He settled in Tripoli (Tarabulus) in what is now Lebanon and served there as the chief judge for almost thirty years in addition to being the representative of Shaikh Tusi. His views are valued by prominent theologians. He trained many prominent scholars and penned numerous books on theology and Islamic philosophy. His well-known book is “al-Jawame' al-Faqih”, which is in the form of questions and answers and is considered highly significant till this day. His other works include "al-Kamel" and "al-Mo’jiz".

862 lunar years ago, on this day in 577 AH, the philologist, Abu’l-Barakaat Abdur-Rahman ibn Mohammad ibn-al-Anbari, passed away in Baghdad. A product of the Nizamiyya Academy set up by Nizam ol-Mulk Tusi, the Iranian vizier of the Seljuqid Empire, he later became teacher at his alma mater. He wrote several books including “al-Asraar al-Arabiyya”. 

848 lunar years ago, on this day in 591 AH, the al-Muwahhedeen ruler, Yaqoub Ibn Tashfeen al-Mansour crossed from Morocco into Spain to defeat King Alfonso VIII of Castile in the Battle of Alarcos following raids by Christians on the territories of Spanish Muslims. Some two decades later, when Ibn Tashfeen was no more, the Pope in Rome called for a crusade against Muslims in Spain, and Alfonso VIII heading an alliance of Christian rulers defeated the al-Muwahhedeen ruler to occupy large parts of Andalusia.

413 solar years ago, on this day in 1605 AD, Europe’s first weekly newspaper titled “Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien” was published in German language by Johann Carolus in the city of Strasbourg, which is currently in France but was then part of Germany’s Holy Roman Empire. It seems the Europeans came up with the idea of a newspaper through their contacts with the Muslim World, especially the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires, in what is now Turkey, Iran and the Subcontinent, where the Waqia-Navis or Newswriter used to release weekly record of various events in the form of Waqianameh or newsletters to keep the court officials and the elite informed.

400 lunar years ago, on this day in 1039 AH, a devastating flood hit the holy city of Mecca due to torrential rains that drowned over 4000 people and engulfed the holy Ka’ba for several days. Following the gradual receding of waters, the walls of the holy Ka’ba including the place of the Hajar al-Aswad (the sacred Black Stone) were reinforced by the custodian of the Grand Sacred Mosque, Iran's Seyyed Aqa Zain al-Abedin Kashi, who has recorded it in his book titled "Mafraha al-Anaam fi Tasis Bayt-Allah Haraam."  Kashi who was a student of scholar Mullah Mohammad Amin al-Astarabadi, was martyred in Mecca by the enemies of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt.

297 solar years ago, on this day in 1721 AD, a massive earthquake devastated the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz in eastern Azarbaijan Province, killing more than 80,000 people and destroying buildings, including many historical structures. The quake was interpreted as an omen of misfortune, or a demonstration of divine wrath, resulting in economic difficulties at a time when political chaos had gripped the border areas of the Safavid Empire, with Bahrain invaded by Oman, Lizgis in revolt in the Caucasus, and Ghilzai Afghans in rebellion in Qandahar – all due to gross mismanagement from the capital Isfahan. As the Safavid Dynasty collapsed the next year after two centuries and over two decades of glorious rule, the Ottomans invaded and occupied quake devastated Tabriz, while Russia seized Daghestan and advanced into Azarbaijan.

213 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, a regiment of US led a band of Greek and Arab mercenaries against forces of Tripoli to attack and occupy Derne, the capital of the North African province of Cyrenaica, during the First Barbary War which it imposed on the Ottoman lands of Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria. It was the first military expedition of the US abroad and met with mixed results as the Muslims regrouped and defeated the American fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.

118 solar years ago, on this day in 1900 AD, American seismologist, Charles Francis Richter, was born. He devised the Richter Scale that measures earthquake magnitudes which he developed with his colleague, Beno Gutenberg, in the early 1930s. The scale assigns numerical ratings to the energy released by earthquakes. Richter used a seismograph to record actual earth motion during an earthquake. That is an instrument generally consisting of a constantly unwinding roll of paper, anchored to a fixed place, and a pendulum or magnet suspended with a marking device above the roll. The scale takes into account the instrument's distance from the epicenter. Gutenberg suggested that the scale be logarithmic so, for example, a quake of magnitude 7 would be ten times stronger than a 6.

92 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Iran’s first radio transmission and wireless telegraph station became operational. Soon more such stations were set up the same year in Mashhad, Tabriz, Shiraz, Khorramshahr, and Kermanshah. The next year all Iranian cities became connected to the national network.

85 solar years ago, on this day in 1933 AD, the dreaded Gestapo organization was formed in Germany by Nazi Field Marshal, Hermann Goering, one of the senior aides of Adolf Hitler. The term Gestapo means state secret police. The goal was identification, detention, and execution of those who were against Nazism and Hitler. The most infamous head of Gestapo was Heinrich Himmler.

75 solar years ago, on this day in 1943 AD, Kashmiri religious scholar and politician, Mowlavi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, organizer of the Grand Ashura Procession in Kashmir on the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Husain (AS), was born in Srinagar. He completed his religious education at Sultan al-Madares in Lucknow. In 1962, he succeeded his father Mowlavi Mohammad Jawad Ansari as president of All Jammu and Kashmir Shi’a Muslim Association. He was a sitting member of the Jammu-Kashmir Legislative Assembly as representative of the Jammu-Kashmir People's Democratic Party. He was earlier a member of National Conference and Congress. Ansari was thrice the target of unsuccessful assassination attempts. In June 2000 he barely escaped the explosion of a landmine while addressing a religious congregation at Gund Khwaja Qasim. The blast killed twelve of his followers. On 1 September 2000 Ansari was injured by an IED explosion that killed two policemen and a driver. Police suspected Hizb ul-Mujahideen of carrying out this terrorist attack. Iftikhar Hussain Ansari passed away at the age of 72 in 2014.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, with the forced union of the Muslim populated Zanzibar Island with Tanganyika on the African mainland, following the overthrow of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and Pemba, the Republic of Tanzania was formed. Earlier in 1961 and 1963, the two countries of Zanzibar and Tanganyika had respectively gained independence from British colonial rule. Julius Nyerere who engineered the overthrow and annexation of Zanzibar is called the father of Tanzania, which is a federal republic. It covers an area of almost 950,000 sq km in eastern Africa and lies on the coastlines of the Indian Ocean. It shares borders with Kenya, Kongo, Uganda, Rwanda, Brunei, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. Some 50 percent of the people of Tanzania are Muslims, with many following the school of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, a prominent figure of the Islamic Revolution, Hojjat al-Islam Mahdi Shahabadi, attained martyrdom at the warfronts against Saddam’s despotic Ba’th minority regime. Following the completion of his Islamic studies, Martyr Shahabadi actively participated in the struggles against the Shah’s dictatorship. He was incarcerated by the Pahlavi regime on several occasions and was ruthlessly tortured. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was elected as a lawmaker. With the outbreak of the imposed war, he left for the warfronts to defend the country. He would say: “If martyrdom can safeguard our monotheist system; and if martyrdom can convey our Islamic thoughts to the world; we are prepared for martyrdom.”

33 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, the UN Security Council condemned Iraq’s use of internationally banned chemical weapons against Iran during the war imposed by the US through Saddam, although it did not issue any resolution in this regard, because of pressure of western, eastern and Arab states. The condemnation was made possible in view of Iran’s sending the chemical victims to hospitals in Europe for treatment. 

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, in Pripyat in the Soviet Union on the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded in the world's worst civil nuclear catastrophe. It sent a cloud of radioactive dust over Europe. The cause was an experiment that went wrong, causing the fourth reactor to explode and melt down. Thirty-one people, mostly firemen, were killed immediately after the explosion, and several thousand more - those involved in the clean-up and children - have since died from radiation-related illnesses. Ukraine says the health of millions of its people have been affected by the disaster. The final shutdown of the undamaged last reactor on the site took place ceremoniously on 15 Dec 2000.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, the deadliest tornado in world history struck Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1996 AD, the 16-day aggression of the Zionist entity on southern Lebanon, codenamed Grapes of Wrath, ended. During its savage attack from land, air, and sea, Israel destroyed most of the infrastructure of Lebanon as far as Beirut, martyring 180 men, women, and children, and wounding hundreds of others. The goal was to try to demoralize people and weaken the Islamic Resistance. Israel, however, failed miserably and was forced to withdraw on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 425. Four years later, the Zionists and their surrogate forces, the South Lebanese Army, were humiliated by the legendry anti-terrorist movement, Hezbollah, and forced to retreat from the Litani River and almost all of south Lebanon.

AS/ME