Today is Monday; 10th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 13th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1439 lunar hijri; and April 30, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian calendar.

1707 solar years ago, on this day in 311 AD, the 8-year persecution of the monotheist followers of Prophet Jesus, as well as the Christians, launched by pagan Roman Emperor Diocletian, ended with the death of his successor, Galerius, who was also an obstinate pagan. Diocletian, who resigned two years after officially launching the persecution, also ordered the persecution of Manicheans, as a political ploy, compounding religious dissent with international politics, since followers of this creed amongst the Romans were supported by Iran’s Sassanid Empire. Diocletian ordered that leading followers of Mani be burnt alive along with their scriptures, while low-status Manicheans must be executed by the blade, and high-status Manicheans must be sent to work in the quarries and mines.

1012 solar years ago, on this day in 1006 AD, at a time when Christian Europe was immersed in the dark ages, Islamic astronomers in Buwaiyhid-ruled Iraq and Fatemid-ruled Egypt recorded a supernova, giving descriptions of how light varied and was visible for almost a year. The speed of the still-expanding shockwave was measured nearly a millennium later. This is history's brightest "new star" ever recorded, at first seen to be brighter than the planet Venus. It occurred in our Milky Way galaxy, appearing in the southern constellation Lupus, near the star Beta Lupi. It was also recorded by Chinese astronomers as is evident from their books.

988 solar years ago, on this day in 1030 AD, Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznavi, the ruler of an emirate in what is now Afghanistan which he enlarged into an empire by conquering Khorasan, Eastern Iran, and parts of Central Asia and Northwest India including today’s Pakistan, died at the age of 60 in his birthplace Ghazni, after a rule of 33 years. He was the son of Sebuktagin, the Turkic slave and successor as governor of Eastern Khorasan of Alptigin, who himself was a Turkic slave and general of the Bukhara-based Persian Samanid Dynasty of Central Asia and Northeastern Iran. He led 17 expeditions into India, as far as Gujarat and what is now Uttar Pradesh, bringing in vast booty to finance his principal campaigns against the Shi’a Muslim Buwaiyhid Dynasty of Iran-Iraq and against the Khwarezmshahis and Samanids in Central Asia. Mahmoud, who massacred the Ismaili Shi’ites of Multan, killed more Muslims during his military campaigns than the Hindus of India, most of whose territories, except for Punjab, he left intact under their own control, contenting himself with annual tribute, and even circulating coins with Islamic emblems in Sanskrit script. During his raids in Iran, Mahmoud brought whole libraries from Rayy and Isfahan to Ghazni. He even demanded that the Khwarezmshahi court send its men of learning to Ghazni his capital, such as the famous scientists, Abu Rayhan Berouni and Abu Ali ibn Sina – although the latter declined and fled into the interior of the Buwaiyhid Empire. The notable poet Abu’l-Qassem Ferdowsi presented his masterpiece the “Shahnamah” to Mahmoud, who failed to appreciate his genius. Sultan Mahmoud, who received the title Yameen od-Dowla from the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, was a paradoxical person. In Afghanistan, Pakistan and among the Indian Muslims, he is celebrated as a hero, while others revile him. He was a great patron of arts, architecture, Persian literature and Iranian culture. He appointed Iranians to high offices as ministers, viziers and generals. In addition, he preferred and promoted Persian language instead of his native Turkic, and adopted the “Shir-va-Khorshid” or the Lion and Sun flag which was a symbol of pre-Islamic Iran

972 lunar years ago, on this day in 467 AH, the 26^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid dynasty, Abdullah Ibn Ahmed al-Qa’im bi-Amrollah, died in Baghdad after a nominal reign of 45 years. During the first half of his long reign, hardly a day passed in the capital without turmoil, because of the insubordination of the Turks against the last of the rulers of the Iranian Buwayhid dynasty. Meanwhile, a new wave of Turkic conquerors from Central Asia, under Toghrul Seljuqi, were casting eyes on Iraq, after sweeping across Iran and overrunning Armenia, Anatolia and Syria. Toghrul, on the pretext of travelling to Mecca for pilgrimage to the holy Ka’ba, entered Iraq with a heavy force, and was acknowledged as Sultan by the puppet caliph, who conspired to replace the Buwayhids, during whose rule, both Arab and Persian culture had flourished in Iraq.

461 solar years ago, on this day in 1557 AD, Lautaro, the heroic leader of the Mapuche Amerindians of Chile, who resisted and defeated the Spanish occupiers in several battles, was treacherously killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito.

241 solar years ago, on this day in 1777 AD, famous German astronomer, Carl Friedrich Gauss, was born. He transformed the science of mathematics since the great inventions by Islamic mathematicians of mostly Iranian origin, and for his contributions to theory in magnetism and electricity, a unit of magnetic field has been named “the Gauss”. He devised the method of least squares in statistics, and his Gaussian error curve remains well-known. He anticipated the SI system in his proposal that physical units should be based on a few absolute units such as length, mass and time. In astronomy, he invented the heliotrope for trigonometric determination of the Earth's shape. With Wilhelm Weber, he developed an electromagnetic telegraph and two magnetometers. In religion, he rejected the Christian Bible as forgery, saying his beliefs were based on search for truth. He believed in the immortality of the soul and its permanence after death, with belief in the Eternal, Righteous, Omniscient and Omnipotent God that make his beliefs near to the Islamic concept of the One and Only Creator.

239 lunar years ago, on this day in 1200 AH, the scholar, Hussain ibn Mohammad Saleh Khaledi, passed away. He was born in Bayt al-Moqaddas and learned the common sciences of his day in his hometown. He was a skilled writer and a talented poet.

226 solar years ago, on this day in 1792 AD, John Montagu, British politician, inventor, explorer, and 4^th Earl of Sandwich in Kent for whom the snack “Sandwich” is named, and which he invented in 1762, died at the age of 75. It is said that while working at his desk for long hours, he used to tell his servants to bring him meat between two slices of bread. Captain Cook named the Sandwich Islands (in Hawaii) in his honour. As First Lord of Admiralty (1771-82) during the American Revolution, he was held responsible for the British navy's disastrous unpreparedness for war.

215 solar years ago, on this day in 1803 AD, the United States of America, as part of its expansionist policy, paid $15 million to France to take control of 2.14 million km of disputed land, which Spain had earlier seized from the native Amerindians and named it New Spain. The dubious deal, known as the Louisiana Purchase, more than doubled the size of the US. It encompasses the present-day states of Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska; parts of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River; most of North Dakota; nearly all of South Dakota; northeastern New Mexico; northern Texas; the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans. Parts of this area were still claimed by Spain at the time of the purchase.

182 solar years ago, on this day in 1834 AD, John Lubbock, British banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist who coined the terms “Neolithic” and “Paleolithic”, was born. He conducted archaeological work identifying prehistoric cultures. He studied insect vision and colour sense. He wrote books on natural history and primitive man.

165 lunar years ago, on this day in 1274 AH, the British formally deposed Bahadur Shah Zafar from the Moghal throne of Delhi and exiled him to Rangoon, Burma, thus ending over three and a quarter centuries of the rule of the Timurid dynasty, founded by Zaheer od-Din Babar – a protégé of Shah Ismail, the Founder of the Safavid Empire of Iran. The aging Bahadur Shah was accused of helping the uprising against British rule the previous year, and his sons and grandsons were shot in cold-blood by the British, who sadistically sent their heads to the Moghal king as gifts on the day of Nowrouz, the Spring Equinox, when traditional celebrations were in progress at the court for the New solar hijri year. Bahadur Shah Zafar was an accomplished poet in both Persian and Urdu.

147 solar years ago, on this day in 1871 AD, Camp Grant Massacre of Amerindians occurred in Arizona. Though the Pinal and Aravaipa Apaches had surrendered to the US forces, the unmanly massacre of mostly women and children took place while most of the Apache men were hunting in the mountains. A total of 144 Aravaipas and Pinals were killed, mutilated, and nearly all of them scalped in a shocking manner by the supposedly civilized Americans, while 29 children were captured and sold into slavery in Mexico.

130 lunar years ago, on this day in 1309 AH, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah Musavi Shirazi, was born in Shiraz. As a 15-year old he accompanied his father, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Tahir Shirazi, into banishment to remote areas for opposing the Qajarid dynasty’s subservience to British colonial rule. Just before outbreak of World War 1, Abdullah Shirazi went to Iraq to study advanced jurisprudence at the seminary of holy Najaf, under Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hussain Na’eni. On his return to Iran, he became active against the anti-Islamic rule of Reza Khan Pahlavi, and following the Gowharshad Mosque protests of 1935 against the forcible unveiling of women, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. After release, he went back to Najaf, and soon became one of the leading Marja or Source of Emulation. In 1975, he returned to Iran and joined the movement of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He was socially active, both inside and outside Iran, and wrote several books, such as “Umdat-il Wasa'il fil Hashiyat ila ar-Rasa'il” (on writings of Shaikh Morteza Ansari, in 4 volumes); “Azahat ush-Shubahat fi Hukm il-Afaaq al-Muttahidah wa’l Mottafiqah” (Jurisprudential Rules on Observation of the Moon for Calculations of the Solar Calendar); “At-Tuhfat ol-Kadhimiyah fi Qatl al-Hayawanat bil-Alaat al-Kahruba'iyah”  (Jurisprudential Rules concerning Slaughtering of Farm Animals with Electric Devices); “Al-Ihtejajaat al-Ashra” (Discussion on the Sunni-Shi'a Debate – translated into Persian, English, Urdu, and Gujarati, and published several times); and “Imam wa Imamat” (in Persian on the topic of Imamate in Islam). Ayatollah Abdullah Shirazi founded over 180 institutes, including hospitals, schools, and libraries in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, and African countries. He passed away in holy Mashhad at the age of 92 and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

122 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, with assassination of the 4^th Qajarid King, Naser od-Din Shah, a bleak 50-year era of Iran’s history came to its end and the stage was set for the Constitutional Revolution. He was shot dead at the shrine of Seyyed Abdul-Azim al-Hasani (AS) in Rayy by freedom-seeker, Mirza Reza Kirmani, a follower of the famous pan-Islamic campaigner, Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi. Naser od-Din Shah’s long rule is marred by bitter incidents such as murder of the highly competent Prime Minister, Mirza Mohammad Taqi Khan Amir Kabir; the Russo-British struggle for control of Iran, and the scandalous tobacco concession to a British company that had to be annulled because of the historic fatwa issued by Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi.

121 solar years ago, on this day in 1897 AD, British scientist, Joseph John Thomson, first announced the existence of electrons (as they are now named). He told his audience that earlier in the year he had made a surprising discovery. He had found a particle of matter a thousand times smaller than the atom. He called it a corpuscle, meaning "small body." Although Thomson was director of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, the scientists present found the news hard to believe. They thought the atom was the smallest and indivisible part of matter that could exist. Nevertheless, the electron was the first elementary particle to be discovered.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, committed suicide in a bunker in the German capital, Berlin, when the Allied forces converged from all sides for the final assault upon him to end World War 2. Born in Austria in 1889, he joined the German army in World War I, and after the war, resentful of the humiliating defeat, founded the Nazi Party by blending his socialist and radical nationalistic views. He was imprisoned for eight months in 1923 for attempts to stage a coup, during which he wrote his book “Mein Kemp” (My Struggle), to introduce his political beliefs. Shortly after release he became German chancellor and a year later the German president. Thereafter, through the dreaded Gestapo, he suppressed his opponents and heavily militarized Germany as part of his plan to avenge the defeat in World War 1. In 1939 he started World War 2 with the goal of conquering all of Europe and if possible the world, by forging alliances with Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. After initial victories all over Europe, the German Nazi forces were pushed back and finally defeated in 1945.

67 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq was formally appointed Prime Minister of Iran following his nomination by the elected Majlis (parliament) by a vote of 79 in favour and 12 against. He launched a wide range of social reforms: unemployment compensation was introduced, factory owners were ordered to pay benefits to sick and injured workers, and peasants were freed from forced labor in their landlords' estates. Twenty percent of the money landlords received in rent was placed in a fund to pay for development projects such as public baths, rural housing, and pest control. On May 1, Mosaddeq nationalized AIOC or the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, cancelling its oil concession and expropriating its assets. The Majlis approved the bill to severe British hands from the Iranian oil industry. Britain filed a case against Iran at the International Court of Justice in Hague, but lost it. As a result, the British and the American regimes ganged up together to overthrow Mosaddeq and his cabinet in 1953 by plotting the August 17 coup that restored the fugitive Shah to power, and re-established foreign control over Iran’s oil industry.

60 lunar years ago, on this day in 1379 AH, prominent Iranian literary figure, Abu’l-Hassan Foroughi, passed away in his hometown Tehran. He was a lecturer on history and geography at Tehran University. Books written by him include “Tarikh-e Adabiyat-e Iran” (Literary History of Iran), and a French work “Social and Philosophical Ideas”.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, with the Vietcong capture of Saigon, capital of the pseudo state of South Vietnam, the country once again became united and the decades-long war – begun by the French – formally ended, as South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh unconditionally surrendered. The US, which intervened in Vietnam on the pretext of preventing spread of communism, suffered a humiliating defeat with the loss of over 50,000 American soldiers, despite indulging in brutal war crimes against the people of Vietnam, including mass massacres and use of internationally-banned chemical weapons. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in honour of the famed revolutionary leader, who for decades had led the untiring struggles for a united and independent Vietnam – against French colonialism, against Japanese occupiers, against the designs of Chiang Kai-shek of China, against France’s bid to re-impose its rule after World War 2, and finally against the Americans. 

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London was occupied by a group of anti-revolutionaries, five days after the failure of the stealth US commando mission in Tabas. A group of six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, and took twenty embassy staffers as hostage, along with six visitors and a police officer, who was on guard. The hostage-takers demanded release of several terrorists in Iran who were nabbed for their role in bomb blasts in the southern parts of the country. Tehran rejected their demands, and on May 5, the frustrated terrorists martyred two employees when the special British forces mounted a raid and reportedly killed five of the gunmen. The embassy was damaged during gunfire.

Ordibehesht 10: is marked every year as Persian Gulf National Day to highlight the age-old historical term of this strategic waterway that separates the Iranian Plateau from the Arabian Peninsula, and has always been under Iran’s domination. Some 40 percent of the world’s crude oil supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz that links the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Following triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Americans, along with their client regimes in the Arab World, have been trying to create a rift between the Muslims of the region by coining the spurious name “Arab Gulf”, which is rejected by scholars, academicians, historians, geographers, and international bodies.     

AS/ME