Today is Thursday; 31st of the Iranian month of Khordad 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1439 lunar hijri; and June 21, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2235 solar years ago, the largest and most successful ambushes in military history took place in the Battle of Lake Trasimene in northern Italy as part of the Second Punic War, when the Carthaginians led by general, Hannibal, defeated the Romans under the Consul Gaius Flaminius, who had set out with a huge army to try to avenge the earlier defeat at Trebia. Occupying an ideally concealed position in the hills and forests overlooking the lake, Hannibal skillfully used his army of North Africans and Europeans to annihilate the initial Roman force of about 30,000, of which 15,000 were either killed in battle or drowned while trying to escape into the lake — including Flaminius himself. The others were captured and sold into slavery, while Hannibal suffered only 2,500 casualties. The disaster for Rome did not end there. Within a day or two, a reinforcement force of 4,000 under Gaius Centenius was intercepted and destroyed. The Second Punic War lasted from 218 to 202 BC and involved battles in the western and eastern Mediterranean, with the participation of the Berbers on Carthage's side. The war is marked by Hannibal's landing in Spain with an army of elephants and his overland journey through what is now France, via which he crossed the Alps into Italy. Rome narrowly escaped destruction during his spectacular victories. The term "Punic" comes from the Latin word Punicus or Poenicus, which is a reference to the Carthaginians' ancestry in Phoenicia or modern Lebanon.

1148 solar years ago, on this day in 870 AD, Muhtadi ibn Watheq, the 14^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, was killed by the Turkic guards at the age of 38 after almost a year-long reign, having succeeded his lecherous cousin, Mu’taz ibn Mutawakkel, whom the Turkic guards had deposed and killed. Son of a Greek concubine named Qurb, on taking up power in Samarra, he tried to reform his court by banning singing girls, dancers and musicians, and prohibiting wine and gambling.

1128 lunar years ago, on this day in 311 AH, the renowned Iranian statesman, scientist, and geographer, Abu Abdullah Mohammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Jeyhani, passed away in Bukhara, where he served as vizier to the Iranian Samanid Dynasty. It was his political acumen that consolidated the Samanid realm in Central Asia and Khorasan (including present-day Afghanistan), following the murder of Ahmad Ibn Ismail, the second ruler and the ascension of the latter's 8-year old son, Nasr. Poets and historians have eulogized him for his policies that included clemency towards fallen foes. His son and grandson also served as viziers. His lasting fame is indebted to the valuable works he wrote, the most important of which is in the geographical book “al-Masaalek wa’l-Mamalek”.

1112 solar years ago, on this day in 906 AD, Ahmad ibn Mohammad, the Saffarid emir of Sistan for forty years, was born in the family of the famous Iranian adventurer Yaqoub bin Layth. His wife was the granddaughter of Amr bin Layth, and he  was he proclaimed ruler by the people in 923 at the age of 17 in Zaranj – ten years after the last Saffarid ruler was ousted from power. Ahmad started expanding his power in all directions, and although his sway in Kerman was temporary, he focused mainly in the east in and around Bust in what is now southeastern Afghanistan, where he crushed opposition to his rule. A great patron of arts, he was held in high regard by his neighbours; even the Saffarids’ historical enemies, the fellow Iranians, Samanids, of what is now Central Asia. The famous Persian poet, Rudaki, praised Ahmad Saffarid’s name in a panegyric at the Samanid court in Bukhara. Other poets, both in Persian and Arabic, also had favourable views about him. Many scholarly gatherings in Sistan were conducted by Ahmad and were attended by prominent scholars such as the logician Abu Sulayman Mohammad as-Sijistani and the academician Nasafi. Ahmad was killed during a drinking party by Turkic slaves hired by a Saffarid family member while his sons were away. He was succeeded by his son Khalaf Wali od-Dowla, who ruled Sistan for the next forty years until his defeat and capture by Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznavi the Turk, who ended the almost 140-year rule of the Saffarid dynasty.

491 solar years ago, on this day in 1527 AD, Italian historian and philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, died in his hometown Florence. Regarded as a founder of modern unprincipled political science, he was a diplomat, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic, serving as secretary to the Second Chancery from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici family were out of power. He wrote his political theory titled “The Prince” after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility. He believed that there is no harm in acquiring power and maintaining it through any means possible including deceit and oppression, without regard for ethical principles or moral and religious values. Machiavelli died in 1527.

359 lunar years ago, on this day in 1080 AH, prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Seyyed Rafi od-Din Mohammad ibn Seyyed Haidar, popular as Mirza-e Rafi'a Na’ini, passed away in Isfahan and was laid to rest in the Takht-e Foulad Cemetery. He was the teacher of the famous scholar, Allamah Baqer Majlisi. His works include the book titled “Hamla-e Haidari”. He wrote important works on beliefs and philosophy.

194 solar years ago, on this day in 1824 AD, Egyptian forces, dispatched by Mohammad Ali Pasha to quell the West European-backed Greek sedition against Ottoman rule, recaptured Psara Island in the Aegean Sea from the rebels.

113 solar years ago, on this day in 1905 AD, the French philosopher and author, Jean-Paul Sartre, was born in Paris. He was among the pioneers of the weird school of thought known as Existentialism. He refused to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964. Among his books, mention can be made of “The Flies” and “Being and Nothingness”. He died in 1980. It is worth noting that Sartre’s philosophy was debated and disproved by two of Iran’s leading Islamic philosophers who were contemporary with him – Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabataba’i, and Allamah Mohammad Taqi Ja’fari.

92 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Iraqi Islamogist and philosopher, Muhsin Seyyed Mahdi, was born in the holy city of Karbala. After finishing studies in Baghdad, he was awarded a government scholarship to study at the American University of Beirut. On return to Iraq, he taught for a year at the University of Baghdad before going to the US in 1948, where he obtained an M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He wrote his dissertation on Ibn Khaldun, and after spending two years in Baghdad, returned to Chicago, where he taught at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. At Harvard University (from 1969 until his retirement in 1996), as Professor of Arabic, he served as director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and also as Chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He was well versed in Islamic, ancient Greek, medieval Jewish and Christian philosophy as well as modern Western political philosophy. Grounded in the methods of critical editions of manuscripts, he tried to establish the same standards in the fields of Arabic philology and philosophy. He devoted much of his career in search of manuscripts wherever his travels took him. He is especially known for the recovery, edition, translation and interpretation of many of the works of the renowned Iranian Islamic philosopher, Abu Nasr al-Farabi. Among his books is “Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy”. He also researched, edited, and published “The Thousand and One Nights.”

65 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, Benazir Bhutto, who served as Pakistan's prime minister for two terms – from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996 – was born in Karachi in a Sindhi Muslim family. She was the daughter of Prime Minister Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, who was deposed and executed by coup leader General Zia ul-Haq. Her mother Nosrat Isfahani was of Iranian origin. Benazir was assassinated at a public rally on 27 December 2007 under suspicious conditions during Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s rule, when it seemed that due to her immense popularity she was all set to win the parliamentary polls.

59 solar years ago, on this day in 1959 AD, Martyr Shaikh Nimr Baqer an-Nimr was born in Awwamiyya in the eastern oil-rich part of the Arabian Peninsula, that is currently under occupation of the Wahhabi Aal-e Saudi regime, which brutally martyred him on 2^nd January 2016 in a move that shocked the civilized world and led to protests around the globe. After preliminary education, he studied higher religious sciences in the Islamic Republic of Iran and later Syria, before returning to his homeland, where his popularity, especially among the youth, alarmed the repressive Aal-e Saud regime. His call for fair and free elections unnerved the regime, and led to his arrest in 2006. Upon release, he continued his criticism of the regime, calling for restoration of the suppressed rights of the Shi’a Muslims, warning that failure to meet the popular demands would lead to eventual declaration of independence by the oil-rich eastern region that the Saudis had occupied in the 1920s. The regime responded by arresting him and 35 others. During the 2011-12 peaceful protests, Shaikh Nimr called for protestors to resist police bullets using "the roar of the word" rather than violence. He predicted collapse of the pseudo country called Saudi Arabia which the British had set up in 1932 by naming their agent, the desert brigand Abdul-Aziz Aal-e Saud as king.  On 8 July 2012, regime forces shot him in the leg and imprisoned him. Despite torture, he refused to give up demands for the denied rights of the long-suppressed Shi’a Muslim majority of the eastern region as well as support for people in the neighbouring Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain where the Aal-e Khalifa minority regime is indulging in all sorts of crimes against the nation. He was sentenced to death by a kangaroo court in 2014 and martyred without trial in the prison.

58 lunar years ago, on this day in 1381 AH, the religious leader and famous political figure of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qasem Kashani, passed away. He attained the status of Ijtehad at the Najaf Seminary at a young age, simultaneous with his struggles against British colonial rule over Iraq, in the company of other ulema. He was expelled by the British, and on arriving in Iran, he launched his struggle against British colonial infiltration, which led to his imprisonment for several years. Following release, he was elected to the parliament. With Ayatollah Kashani’s support for Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the continued struggles of the masses, Iran’s oil industry was nationalized and Mosaddeq was chosen as Prime Minister. But, when the Shah appointed the British stooge, Qawwam os-Saltanah, as the Premier; Ayatollah Kashani issued a statement calling on the people to enter the scene. As a result, the July 21, 1952 uprising took place. The terrified Shah removed Qawwam and Mosaddeq was reinstated as Premier. Following the US-staged coup in 1953 and the fugitive Shah’s return to Iran, his agents put Ayatollah Kashani under surveillance until his death on this day, after his lifelong struggles against domestic despotism and foreign hegemony.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, the Leader of Indonesia’s independence from Dutch colonial rule, Ahmed Sukarno, died at the age of 69. He was elected as president of Indonesia in 1949, and was in power for 15 years when General Suharto staged a coup and seized power. In 1967, he was forced to resign.

46 lunar years ago, on this day in 1393 AH, the exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Mirza Abu’l-Hussain Sha’rani, passed away at the age of 73. As an authority on Islamic sciences, he was fluent in French, Arabic, and English languages. His works include a 10-volume exegesis of the Holy Qur’an.

40 lunar years ago, on this day in 1399 AH, the prominent Iranian religious scholar and exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Taleqani, passed away due to a heart attack at the age of 70. He was involved in the political developments from an early age, and in 1963 was jailed by the Pahlavi regime for participating in the Khordad 15 Uprising (June 5, 1963), following the arrest of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). In the subsequent years till the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he was incarcerated or banished to the country’s remote places. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was named by the Late Imam as Head of the Revolutionary Council as well as the Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran. In the first round of elections for the Assembly of Experts, he was elected as the Tehran representative for an 8-year term. He was a prolific writer and among his works is an exegesis of several surahs of the Holy Qur’an as well as a book titled "System of Ownership in Islam".

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Islamic thinker, scientist, and Iranian defence minister, Dr. Mostafa Chamran, was martyred by the invading Ba'thist forces at the age of 49 while directing operations at the warfronts in Khuzestan, southwest Iran. He studied electronic engineering and obtained a PhD in this field from the US, where he was active in the struggle against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. He left his prestigious job as a senior research staff scientist at Bell Laboratories and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to live in self-exile in Lebanon, where, while cooperating with the famous Iranian émigré religious leader, Imam Musa Sadr, he helped the deprived Lebanese people set up the Amal (Hope) Movement to confront the state terrorism of the illegal Zionist entity. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, he returned to Iran and was in charge of organizing the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC). Elected to the parliament in March 1980 he subsequently became defence minister. When Saddam at the behest of the US imposed the 8-year war on Iran, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), appointed him representative to the Supreme Defense Council. As an experienced general he was actively involved in defence operations at the warfronts and achieved martyrdom.

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale jolted Gilan and Zanjan Provinces in northwestern Iran, at night, inflicting huge fatalities and major losses. The epicenter was in Roudbar. It claimed more than 50,000 lives, while wounding 60,000 others and leaving 500,000 people homeless. In the wake of this catastrophic earthquake, the Iranian people and government rushed to help the quake victims and compensated for the damages imposed by this quake.

14 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, Iranian engineer, architect and archeologist, Mohammad Mehryar, passed away at the age of 65, while engaged in projects to restore the historic Bam Citadel following the devastating earthquake. For over 30 years he was active in research, field work, and projects to determine pre-Islamic and Islamic architectural masterpieces at Iran’s historical sites.

AS/ME