Today is Wednesday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Khordad 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1439 lunar hijri; and May 23, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1441 lunar years ago, on this day in the second year prior to Hijra, Abu-Taleb, the father of Imam Ali (AS) and uncle and protector of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), passed away in Mecca. On the death of his father Abdul-Muttaleb, he and his wife, Fatema bint Asad, had taken charge of the 8-year orphan of Abdullah, his deceased brother, and brought up the future Prophet as their own son. Abu Taleb was a staunch monotheist following the creed of his ancestor, Prophet Abraham, and when God formally appointed his now 40-year old nephew as the Last and Greatest Messenger to mankind, he firmly believed in the message of Islam and protected the Prophet against the taunts and attacks of the pagan Arabs. When the Meccans imposed the social-economic boycott on the Prophet, he took his nephew and the whole neo Muslim community under his protection to the safety of the gorge outside Mecca which is still called “She'b Abi Taleb” in his honour.  His death saddened the Prophet and since earlier in the same year, the Prophet's loyal wife, the Mother of all True Believers (Omm al-Momineen) Hazrat Khadija also passed away, the year is known in Islamic history as "Aam al-Hozn” (Year of Grief).

1316 solar years ago, on this day in 702 AD, Kinich Kan Bahlam II, also known as Chan Bahlum II, ruler of the Maya city-state of Palenque in what is now southern Mexico, was born to Kinich Janaab Pakal I. He succeeded his father in 684 and died in 702 at the age of 67 after a reign of 18-years, during which he continued the ambitious project of adorning his dominion with fine arts and architecture. His most important addition to the city of Palenque was the Temple of the Cross which is the centre piece of the Temple of the Cross Complex, and the largest and most significant pyramid within a complex of temples in present state of Chiapas in Mexico. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Kinich Kan Joy Chitam I.

1215 lunar years ago, on this day in 224 AH Ibrahim bin Mahdi, stepbrother of the Abbasid tyrant Haroun Rashid, died at the age of 62 in Baghdad. Born of an African concubine and known as Ibn Shakla because of his dark complexion, he was proclaimed as caliph in Baghdad in 201 AH by the Abbasids in protest to the seemingly pro-Hashemite policies of the reigning caliph, his nephew Mamoun, in declaring the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS) as Heir Apparent. Two years later in 203 AH, with the Mamoun’s return to Baghdad after martyring Imam Reza through poisoning in Tous, he resigned and spent the rest of his life as a singer and a musician. Ibn Shakla reportedly had a phenomenal vocal range.

1174 solar years ago, on this day in 844 AD is the spurious date of the fictional Battle of Clavijo in northern Spain between Muslims and Christian that never took place. Stories invented centuries later claimed it saw the victory of Ramiro I of Asturias over the Emir of Cordoba. In this myth, Saint James Matamoros, suddenly appeared and helped a vastly outnumbered Christian army to gain victory. Aspects of the historical Battle of Monte Laturce (in 859) were incorporated into this fiction. The myth, as it survives, was first fabricated about 300 years after the supposed battle on a spurious charter. A forged grant to the Church of Santiago de Compostela by which Ramiro reportedly surrendered a part of the annual tribute owed him by all the Christians of Spain also dates from the mid-twelfth century. The history of the cult of Saint James is rich in such frauds. Such myths were coined to instill a false sense of religiosity amongst the Spanish Christians to make them rise against Spanish Muslims. Modern Spanish scholarship has noted the heavy borrowings from the historical Battle of Monte Laturce that led to the defeat of Musa Ibn Musa, of the Islamicized Bani Qasi (descendants of the Hispano-Visigoth nobleman Cassius). After Monte Laturce, which was the result of family feud between Spanish Christians and Spanish Muslims, Musa was forced to fully submit to the Emir of Cordoba, who taking advantage of his weakness, removed him as Wali or Governor of the Upper March, initiating a decade-long eclipse of the Banu Qasi.

1078 lunar years ago, on this day in 361 AH, the grand al-Azhar Mosque and Madrasah was officially opened by Jowhar as-Saqali, the Sicilian general of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite dynasty who completed the grand project three years after conquering Egypt and establishing the city of Cairo, as the new capital of the Empire that now stretched from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean."al-Azhar" is a derivative of "az-Zahra" (or the Radiant), the famous epithet of Hazrat Fatema (SA) the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) in whose honour the mosque and the religious school were built. The Fatemids restored the full form of the Azaan or call for the daily prayers, from the minarets of al-Azhar and other mosques, by bearing testimony to the imamate of Imam Ali (AS) after the Prophethood of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The phrase "hayya ala khayr il-amal", meaning "hasten to the best of deeds", which was dropped from the Azaan by the second caliph, was also revived. Exactly, a year later on this same date in 362 AH, the Fatemid caliph, al-Mu’iz le-Dinillah arrived in his new capital Cairo, from Mahdia in what is now Tunisia, the then capital of the Fatemid state.

928 lunar years ago, on this day in 511 AH, the famous Imami theologian, Seyyed Abu’l-Makarem Ibn Zuhra, was born in Aleppo, Syria. He studied in Najaf in Iraq under prominent students of the famous scholar Abu Ja’far Shaykh at-Tayefa Tousi, and on return to Syria groomed several scholars. He has left behind several books including "al-Ghunyah" on fiqh. He passed away in 585 AH.

494 solar years ago, on this day in 1524 AD, Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Dynasty of Iran, passed away at the age of 37 after a reign of 24 years, and was succeeded by his young son, Shah Tahmasp I. To Ismail and the Safavids goes the credit of giving Iran its present political, cultural, religious, and national identity, although in terms of geography many of the areas of the Safavid Empire were lost to the aggressors and colonialists by the subsequent dynasties. Ismail I was devoted to the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Ardabil to the head of the Safaviyya Sufi order, Shah Haidar, and his wife Martha, the daughter of the Aq Qoyounlu ruler, Uzun Hassan, by his Greek wife Theodora, better known as Despina Khatun, he was the direct descendant of the famous mystic, Safi od-Din Ardabeli, and hence traced lineage to the Prophet’s 7th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa Kazem (AS). At the age of 13, Ismail launched his campaign in Erzinjan (presently in Turkey), and with the help of a 7,000 force of Qizl-Bash (literally ‘Red-Heads’ from the colour of their caps) Turkic tribes of Rumlu, Shamlu, Ustajlu, Qajar, Afshar, Zul-Qadr, Tekulu, and Varsak, he defeated the Shirvan-Shah, took control of Baku (presently in the Republic of Azerbaijan) and crowned himself as King of Azarbaijan in Tabriz. By 1509, he unified all of Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, and western Afghanistan, and took the title of Shah of Persia. He was an adventurous personality and the dynasty founded by him lasted 235 years, reviving Iran's Islamic glories in science, art, architecture, philosophy, culture, and literature. Hence he wielded spiritual influence outside Iran as well amongst the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt in Iraq, Syria, Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Deccan Plateau of India. The Timurid prince, Babar, who later founded the Mughal Empire in northern India, regarded Shah Ismail as his suzerain, and so did the Deccan Sultanates of Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur and Sultan Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda. For this reason, the Ottomans and Uzbeks were his mortal enemies, whose political ambitions, he decisively checked despite the setback he suffered in the Battle of Chaldiran against the former. Shah Ismail I was an accomplished poet in both Persian and his native Azeri Turkish, and wrote under the penname of "Khatai".

495 lunar years ago, on this day in 944 AH, one of the renowned historians and poets, Seyyed Nizam od-Din Mohammad M’asoum Safai Tirmizi, who wrote under the penname “Naami”, was born in India. His ancestors were from Qandahar in Afghanistan. He and his father served the Sultans of Gujarat in western India. He has left behind valuable books, such as “Tibb-e Naami” on medicine. He passed away in 1019 AH.

479 lunar years ago, on this day in 960 AH, Ottoman admiral Turgut Raees took control of the Mediterranean island of Corsica and the city of Catania in Malta, to free some seven thousand Muslim captives. He gave Corsica to the French, who soon lost it to the Spanish.

400 solar years ago, on this day in 1618 AD, the 30-year sectarian war started in Europe between the Catholic and Protestant sects, and involved almost all major countries. Europe has a history of gory sectarian and ethnic wars among the various sects that make up Christianity. These senseless wars have claimed millions of life.

186 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, Samuel Sharpe, of black African origin, was hanged in Jamaica by the British colonialists at the young age of 27 years for leading what they called a ‘slave rebellion’. His last words were: “I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery.” Born in a family of Africans enslaved and Christianized by the white men, he managed to educate himself and advocated freedom from forced labour for the so-called slaves. In the mistaken belief that the British parliament in London had initiated emancipation, Sharpe organised a peaceful general strike on 27 December 1831 in Kensington to protest working conditions that soon spread across western Jamaica. As this was harvest time at the sugarcane plantations, the owners forced the black men and women to work overtime, resulting in the burning of the crops by the enslaved people. Sharpe's peaceful protest turned into Jamaica’s largest slave rebellion, and the British used the military forces to suppress it within two weeks, by massacring more than 200 black people. They arrested Sharpe and hundreds of others, and in the months that followed executed over 400 on trumped up charges including allegations of theft. In 1975, the government of independent Jamaica proclaimed Sharpe a National Hero. His image is used on the modern Jamaican $50 bill, and his statues have been erected in various cities.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Nazi Germany's notorious intelligence agency, Gestapo, committed suicide while being held in prison by the Allied Powers, a few hours prior to his execution.

60 solar years ago, on this day in 1958 AD, Chairman Mao Zedong of the People’s Republic of China launched his “Great Leap Forward” to modernize the economy by forcing factories and farms to meet impossible production targets.  The result of the four-year campaign was the shrinking of the economy and the Great Famine of 1960 that killed an estimated 30 million people. The Great Leap also led to the greatest destruction of real estate in human history, outstripping any of the bombing campaigns of World War II, as private ownership was banned, religion prohibited, and people mercilessly prosecuted and killed, while their homes and hearths razed to the ground for resisting against communism. This proves the futility of any economic plan that fails to take into account the spiritual values, religious beliefs, and the cultural aspects of the people, and the right to own property by any individual. 

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, almost worldwide demonstrations were staged by Muslims against Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, in protest to his desecration of the holy shrines in Karbala and Najaf, coupled with the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Shi’a Muslims, on the orders of the US and Arab regimes, when the popular uprising of the people of Iraq was about to topple him.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1997, Iranian botanist, Ahmad Parsa, died at the age of 90 in California, US. Born in Tafresh in central Iran, after completing his studies he left for France where he obtained his doctorate. In 1933 he returned to Iran and became the first modern professor of Botany at Tehran Unversity. He helped establish a natural history museum with a herbarium in Tehran in 1954. He wrote eight volumes on the flora of Iran published in the 1950s and 60s, in which he described over 250 new species.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the Islamic Republic of Iran successfully test-fired and started mass production of the new surface-to-surface missile, Qiyam, as part of the country’s defence needs to safeguard peace in the region.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, Iran's navy, as a humanitarian gesture and efforts to safeguard international waters, saved the US-flagged Maersk Texas cargo ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman.

AS/ME