Today is Thursday; 26th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1437 lunar hijri; and April 14, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

954 lunar years ago, on this day in 483 AH, the strategically located castle of Alamut near Qazvin in Iran was taken over without bloodshed (perhaps bought) by the Ismaili Nizari missionary, Hassan Sabbah, two years after he had identified it and infiltrated it through the growing number of converts to his creed. The almost inaccessible fort stood guard over a valley that was about fifty kilometers long and five kilometers wide. For the next 35 years until his death in 518 AH, the fort served as headquarters for spread of Ismaili teachings in the Seljuqid Empire from Iran till Syria by Hassan Sabbah, who was born in Qom and after coming under the influence of missionaries of the Fatemid caliphate of Egypt (sent by Caliph al-Mustansir’s Chief Missionary [Bab al-Abwab], the Iranian Hibatullah Mu'ayyad fi'd-Din Shirazi), had travelled to Cairo, where he stayed for three years to become a full-fledged missionary. Hassan Sabbah had to return to Iran after being imprisoned and expelled for supporting Nizar, the elder son of Mustansir, as the next Imam rather than Ahmad Musta’l the younger son – resulting in the split of the Ismaili creed into Nizari and Musta’li sects. Several years later, following Nizar’s death in prison, his son Hadi came to Alamut and was recognized by Hassan Sabbah as the 20th Ismaili Imam – dynastic rule that ended in 654 AH when the fortress fell to the Mongol invader Hulagu Khan. In a major departure from tradition, Hassan Sabba declared Persian to be the language of holy literature for Nizaris, a decision that resulted in all the Nizari Ismaili literature from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Central Asia to be transcribed in Persian for several centuries. From this point on his community and its branches spread throughout Iran and Syria and came to be called Hashshashin or Assassins. The present self-styled Imam of the Nizaris (known as Khojas), is the Europe-based Karim Agha Khan.

921 lunar years ago, on this day in 516 AH, the famous Arabic literary figure, Mohammad al-Qasim ibn Ali al-Hariri, passed away. Born in Basra in Iraq, which was then part of the Iran-based Seluqid Empire, he is best known for writing “Maqamat al-Hariri” (Assemblies of al-Hariri), consisting of 50 anecdotes written in stylized prose, which was once memorized by heart by scholars. He wrote this masterpiece of Arabic literature for Amid od-Dowla, who although a Shi’ite Muslim, served for a time as Abbasid vizier and was son-in-law of the celebrated Iranian statesman and Seljuqid prime minister, Khwaja Nizam ol-Mulk Tusi.

890 solar years ago, in 1126 AD, Spanish Muslim philosopher and polymath, Mohammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd (known as “Averroes” to medieval Europe), was born in Qurtuba (Cordoba) In Islamic Spain in a family with a long tradition of legal and public service. He was an expert in medicine, astronomy, philosophy, jurisprudence, Qur’an and hadith, at a time when Christian Europe was living in ignorance and darkness. At the age of 25, he conducted astronomical observations in Morocco, discovering a previously unobserved star. He was of the view that the Moon is opaque and has some parts which are thicker than others, with the thicker parts receiving more light from the Sun than the thinner parts. He gave one of the first descriptions on sunspots. His well-known book in medicine is “Kitab al-Kulliyaat fi’t-Tibb”, whose Latin translation known as “Colliget” aroused much interest in medieval Europe. He has shed light on various aspects of medicine, including the diagnoses, cure and prevention of diseases. Known as “the jurisprudent philosopher”, as a follower of the Maliki School, he compiled a summary of fatwas or jurisprudential edicts of previous jurists. His works include interpretation of Qur’anic concepts. His most important philosophical work is “Tahafut at-Tahafut” (“Incoherence of the Incoherence”), which is a refutation of the Iranian Shafei theologian, Ghazali’s “Tahafut al-Falasefa” (“Incoherence of the Philosophers”). Ghazali had criticized as self-contradictory and an affront to Islamic teachings, the presentation of Aristotle’s thoughts by the famous Iranian Islamic genius, Abu Ali Ibn Sina. Ibn Rushd has shown Ghazali's arguments as mistaken. He passed away at the age of 72, while on a visit to Marakesh, from where his body was brought back to Spain and buried in his birthplace Cordoba.

655 lunar years ago, on this day in 782 AH, al-Ashraf Sayf od-Din Qaytbay assumed power in Cairo as the eighteenth Burji Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria. He was Circassian by birth from the Caucasus, and was purchased by the 9th Burji ruler Sultan Barsbay (also a freed Circassian slave), before being manumitted by the 11th ruler, Sultan Jaqmaq, who appointed him executive secretary. Under the Sultans, Inal, Khushqadam, and Yilbay, he was further promoted through the Mamluk military hierarchy, eventually becoming commander of a thousand troops. Under Sultan Timurbugha, he was appointed “Atabak”, or field marshal of the entire army. When Timurbugha was dethroned in a palace coup, the Mamluk council chose Qaitbay as Sultan. During his 29-year rule, he stabilized the Mamluk state and economy, consolidated the northern boundaries of the Sultanate on the Syrian-Anatolian border with the rising Ottoman Empire, engaged in trade with other contemporaneous polities, and emerged as a great patron of art and architecture. In fact, although he fought sixteen military campaigns, he is best remembered for his Islamic piety and the spectacular building projects that he sponsored, leaving his mark as an architectural patron on the holy cities of Mecca, Medina, and Bayt al-Moqaddas, as well as Damascus, Aleppo, Alexandria, and every quarter of Cairo. During his Hajj pilgrimage, appalled by the pecuniary condition of the people of the two holy cities, Qaytbay initiated public welfare schemes, in addition to carrying out extensive renovation projects in Mecca and Medina including the rebuilding of Holy Shrine and Mosque of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

The position of Mamluk in Islam should not be confused with the oppressed state of slaves and bonded labour in the Christian West or other non-Muslim cultures. According to the dynamic laws of Islam, as was evident in the different lands the Muslims ruled and the societies they formed, purchases of human beings were made for emancipating them from oppression, and providing them education and training in various vocations. The Mamluk were viewed as adopted children, even eligible for marriage with the offspring of the person who purchased them, and this explains for their rise as governors and even kings.

317 solar years ago, in 1699 AD, Sikhism was formalized in the Punjab Province of India as the Khalsa of Sant-Sipahis (Brotherhood of Saint-Soldiers) by Guru Gobind Singh. It is a monotheistic religion founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak, who had become disillusioned by the weird practices of the Hindus such as idol-worship, the divisive caste system, etc. He travelled widely, as far as Baghdad and holy Mecca, and as is clear from his teachings, he became profoundly impressed by the egalitarian teachings of the divine message of Islam. He thus taught that God is One, is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, without shape and form, not bound by time, and cannot be perceived by the physical eye of creatures. According to him the Sikhs should have control over their internal vices and adhere to the virtues clarified in their religious book, the Guru Granth Sahib. Among prohibitions in Sikhism are idol-worship and superstition, ban on consumption of all sorts of intoxicants (alcohol, drugs, and even tobacco), abstention from adultery and extra marital relations, and refraining from cutting hair. The Sikh population is estimated to be 30 million worldwide, with the majority of them living in India, especially in Punjab State.

200 solar years ago, on this day in 1816 AD, the Bussa Revolt started on the Barbados Island against the British. It was led by Bussa, who was kidnapped by Europeans off the coast of West Africa and sold as slave in the Caribbean Sea. He commanded a force of 400 men, who bravely fought for three days until routed by the superior firepower of the British. Bussa was killed fighting on April 16. He is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados. His uprising inspired similar revolts against the tyranny of the British colonialists in Jamaica and Guyana.

170 solar years ago, on this day in 1846 AD, the Orientalist and Iranist, Friedrich Carl Andreas, was born in Batavia, Java, Indonesia. Of mixed Armenian, German, and Malayan descent, after education in Hamburg and Geneva, he pursued Iranian and other Oriental studies at Göttingen, Halle, and Leipzig universities, before completing his graduate work in Copenhagen and Kiel. Between 1875 and 1881, he conducted field work in India with the Parsees or Zoroastrians of Iranian origin, and also in southern Iran. His research in Europe focused on the languages and music of Iranic region of Ossetia in the Caucasus and the Indo-Afghan borderlands. From 1903 till his death in 1930, he was professor of Western Asiatic Philology at Göttingen. Iranologists of several generations, such as Kaj Barr, Arthur Christensen, Bernhard Geiger, Walter Bruno Henning, Paul Horn, Wolfgang Lentz, Herman Lommel, and Oskar Mann, owe him decisive influences on their work. Among his fundamental insights was the recognition that the difference between “Arsacid” (i.e., Parthian) and “Sasanian” (i.e., southwestern) Middle Iranian Language is essentially one of dialect, rather than of time sequence. Working with the Manichean fragments from Turfan in Xingjian, he isolated the texts written in Parthian (which he called the “northern dialect”) and identified another “Pahlavi dialect” as the Sogdian or the eastern Iranian language of what is now Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

144 solar years ago, on this day in 1872 AD, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the translator of the holy Qur’an into English, was born in Bombay to an India merchant family. He received a religious education and went on to memorize the entire Qur'an. He learned Arabic and studied English literature during his education at several European universities, including the University of Leeds in the UK. His best-known work is “The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary”, published in 1938 by Shaikh Muhammad Ashraf Publishers in Lahore, India (later Pakistan). Unfortunately, in the later, revised editions of this book, the author’s notes on the exclusive God-given virtues of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – Imam Ali (AS), Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) – have been removed by the publishers, including those pertaining to ayah 107 of Surah Saffat, where Abdullah Yusuf Ali had explicitly mentioned in his original work while explaining the term “Zibhin Azim” (Great Sacrifice) that ransomed Abraham’s offering of Ishmael. He wrote: “This was the type of service which Imam Husain (AS) performed, many years later in 60 AH, as I have noted in a separate pamphlet.”

This and similar remarks by Abdullah Yusuf Ali regarding the merits of the Ahl al-Bayt have long been erased and are not found in the distorted editions of his work that are available today.

135 solar years ago, on this day in 1881 AD, Husain Salah od-Din, the Maldivian writer and an influential poet and scholar of English, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and the local Dhivehi language of the Maldives archipelago, was born. He greatly contributed to Maldivian literature. He also served as the Chief Justice of the Maldives for a long time. His most famous work is the Biography of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), which is broadcast till this day in the month of Ramadhan by Radio Maldives.

127 solar years ago, on this day in 1889 AD, British historian, Arnold Toynbee, was born in London. His 12-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, titled “A Study of History”, took 27 years to complete, and is a synthesis of world history, based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global perspective. After initially supporting the Zionist movement at the turn of the 20th century, he gradually changed his outlook and by 1950, two years after the illegitimate birth of Israel, was a strong opponent of the Zionist entity, and supported the Arab cause.

126 solar years ago, on this day in 1890 AD, the Pan American Union, which later on changed its name to The Organization of American States (OAS), was founded. The OAS has lost its influence because of US attempts to exploit Latin American states under cover of this organization. An increasing number of South and Central American countries now no longer follow the dictates of Washington.

70 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammad Taqi Bafqi passed away at the age of 72 in Qom, and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Fatema al-Ma’soumah (SA), the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) – the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Bafq in Yazd Province, he completed his higher studies in the seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq under such eminent scholars as Akhound Khorasani and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi. On his return to Iran nineteen years later, he settled in Qom to assist Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri in reviving the seminary of this holy city. He was a staunch defender of the Shar’ia and when in 1928 the British installed Pahlavi potentate, Reza Khan, tried to insult Islamic sanctities by entering the holy shrine of Ma’soumah (SA), along with unveiled women, he personally rebuked the dictator, who whipped him in public and exiled him to Rayy near Tehran. While in Rayy, Ayatollah Bafqi was shocked at the forced unveiling of Iranian women on the orders of the Pahlavi dictator. In 1935, he suffered a stroke and some of his limbs became paralyzed on learning of the desecration of the Gowharshad Mosque in Mashhad, adjacent to the holy shrine of the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS), and the massacre of pilgrims by the regime. He returned to Qom in 1941 when Reza Khan was removed from the throne by his British masters and taken out of Iran.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, Cuban anti-revolutionaries with the help of the US, attempted a diversionary landing near Baracoa, Oriente Province, prior to the full scale invasion of Cuba through the Bay of Pigs waterway on April 17, but were swiftly defeated by forces led by Fidel Castro. On April 19, the Bay of Pigs invasion collapsed and Cuba’s success greatly discredited the US.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, hailstones as large as one kg fell on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, the Soviet Union signed an agreement in the Swiss Capital, Geneva, for withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan after ten years of occupation. This was largely the result of the open policies of Michael Gorbachev, who realized that total victory and complete control of Afghanistan in the face of stiff resistance was impossible and means only more bloodshed and deaths. In February 1989, the Soviet forces completed their pullout by withdrawing all support from the dictatorial communist regime of President Najibollah, which eventually collapsed in 1992.

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, the tyrannical Ba’th minority regime of Saddam, formally admitted the use of internationally-banned chemical weapons against the Iranian combatants, thereby validating Iran’s official complaints to the UN and related international bodies of Iraq’s frequent use of such weapons throughout the 8-year imposed war. Western powers, especially Germany, had supplied Saddam with these internationally banned toxic weapons which the Ba’thists used at least 3,500 times against Iran, including 30 times on Iranian residential areas.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, Iranian scientists at the Royan Research Institute cloned a goat and planned future experiments for treatment for stroke patients. The female goat, named Hana, was born in the city of Isfahan in central Iran.

AS/ME