Today is Monday; 1st of the Iranian month of Mordad 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 9th of the Islamic month of Zil’Qa’dah 1439 lunar hijri; and July 23, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1045 lunar years ago, on this day in 394 AH, the renowned Iranian Ismaili Shi'ite scientist, philosopher, poet, author and traveler, Naser Khosrow, was born in Qobadian in northeastern Khorasan, which is now part of modern Tajikistan. He memorized the Holy Qur'an while still a child, and in addition to philosophy, learned a wide variety of natural sciences, such as medicine, mathematics, astronomy and astrology. He was fluent in several languages, and besides his native Persian, mastered Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Turkish and the Indian vernaculars of Sindhi and Punjabi. He joined the Ghaznavid court as secretary, but following a major development in his thoughts, shunned politics, and after a while started on a long journey to Egypt to meet the Fatemid caliph. During the over six years he spent in travel until his return home, he visited the different cities of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Arabia, and Egypt, and performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina four times. He penned his travels in the famous book titled "Zaad al-Musafereen", which is also known as "Safar-Namah" or Travelogue that contains an interesting description of the peoples, the customs, the conditions, and geographical factors of the lands he visited. Naser Khosrow has composed some very fine odes in Persian in praise of Imam Ali (AS), the First Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He died in 481 AH at the age of 87.

1021 solar years ago, on this day in 997 AD, Nuh II, ruler of the Iranian Samanid Empire of Central Asia died in his capital Bukhara at the age of 34 after a reign of 21 years that saw the gradual decline of the dynasty, as a result of rebellions by refractory governors and encroachment by the Qarakhanid Turks from the north. Shortly after his ascension, the Qarakhanids invaded and captured the upper Zarafshan Valley, where the Samanid silver mines were located. Four years later in 980 they struck again seizing the important trade town of Isfijab (presently in southern Kazakhstan). In the southwest in 982 Nuh II mobilized an army in Khorasan that was initially successfully against the fellow-Iranian Buwaiyhid Empire, but his forces were subsequently crushed. An invasion of Samanid state was prevented only by the sudden death in Baghdad of the powerful Buwaiyhid ruler, Adhud od-Dowla Daylami. In 991, Boghra Khan, the Qarakhanid ruler launched a full-scale invasion of the Samanid Empire, and the next year briefly occupied Bukhara, but his death emboldened Nuh II to retake his capital. The invasion of Transoxania signaled a definitive shift from Iranian to Turkic predominance in Central Asia, although the Qarakhanids became assimilated into the Perso-Arab Muslim culture of the region. In Khorasan, Nuh II’s rewarding of territories to the former Samanid vassal, Sebuktagin and his son Mahmoud of Ghazna, for providing military help against rebellious governors, further weakened the empire. Son and successor of Mansour I, on his death Nuh II was succeeded by his son, Mansour II. The 180-year rule of the Samanid Dynasty saw the birth of modern Persian language and literature in Arabic script, in addition to the patronizing of Arabic language for religious texts.

699 solar years ago, on this day in 1319 AD, Knights of the Christian Hospitaller Order won a naval encounter against the Aydinid Turks off the island of Chios in what is now Greece. Founded in 1308 by Aydinoghlu Mohammad Bey on the western coast of modern Turkey on the decline of the Seljuq Sultanate of Roum, the Aydinids, during their century-odd sway until absorption by the expanding Ottoman Empire, were a major naval power and kept the Christian Genoese and Venetian fleets in check in the Aegean Sea. The dynasty that controlled the port of Smyrna (modern Izmir) has left important architectural works, principally in Birgi and Seljuk, its capital cities. The modern city of Aydın was named after the dynasty.

646 solar years ago, on this day in 1372 AD, Krishnaraja of Yijaynagar, whose seizure of the fortress of Mudkul brought about war with the Bahmani Kingdom of Iranian origin of the Deccan in southern India, was decisively defeated by Mohammad Shah I. After being driven all the way to his capital, the Raja begged for peace to persuade the Bahmani Sultan to lift the siege and return to Gulbarga.

197 solar years ago, on this day in 1821 AD, Christian rebels stormed the Monemvasia Castle in the Ottoman Province of “Yunanistan” (as the land known as Greece today was called during almost four centuries of Turkish rule), and massacred over 3,000 Muslims. The rebels, taking advantage of the weakness of the Ottoman Empire, resorted to organized killings of Muslims and destruction of mosques that made the Sultan in Istanbul call on the Egyptian governor, Mohammad Ali Pasha, to crush the rebellion. The Egyptian forces led by the governor’s son, Ibrahim Pasha, arrived in “Yunanistan” and quickly restored order to this Ottoman Province by crushing the rebels. This gave a pretext to Britain, France and Russia to intervene and internationalize the rebellion, which because of direct European military measures forced the Egyptians and Ottomans to retreat by 1830, when as per the London Protocol, a new country with the ancient name of Greece, was created. The Greeks immediately set about the ethnic cleansing of Turks and Muslims through massacres and expulsion, as well as conversion of mosques into Churches, so that today hardly any trace of several centuries of Ottoman rule remains.

178 solar years ago, on this day in 1840 AD, the Province of Canada was created by the British by merging Upper and Lower Canada, following rebellions and fears of breakaway from the crown like the 13 colonies of New England that seceded from London’s rule to set up the United States of America (USA). In 1867 with the inclusion of more British colonies of the remote and almost uninhabited areas of Northern America, the Confederation of Canada was formed, extending from the US borders till the Arctic Circle.

139 solar years ago, on this day in 1879 AD, the acclaimed German Orientologist and Iranologist, Ernst Herzfeld, was born. He was an expert in deciphering the writings and languages of ancient nations, and lectured for several years at Berlin University on the history of Persia and Mesopotamia. He managed to read and translate the cuneiform inscriptions at the ruins of Persepolis. He published almost 190 books, treatises, and articles on the history and language of Iran and the divine religion of Islam. Among his important books, mention can be made of “Iran in the Ancient Times”. He died in 1947.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, France’s Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the pro-Nazi Vichy government during World War Two, went on trial, charged with treason. He was condemned to death but his sentence was commuted. He died in prison on this date in 1951.

66 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD General Mohammad Najib led the Free Officers Movement (formed by Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser, the real power behind the coup) in overthrowing King Farouq and thus ending a century and half rule of the Khedive dynasty of Egypt founded by the Ottoman Albanian General, Mohammad Ali Pasha.

51 solar years ago, on this day in 1967 AD, the 12th Street Riot in Detroit, Michigan, in the predominantly African American inner city, resulted in the death of 43 people, injury to over 2000 others, and homelessness of 5,000 black people. Over 1,400 buildings were burned.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, Qaboos Ibn Sa’id became Sultan of Oman after overthrowing his father, Sa’id Ibn Taimur. Educated at Pune (India) and Britain, he never remarried after divorcing his wife after a brief marriage in the 1970s, nor has he any children.

42 lunar years ago, on this day in 1397 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Khomeini, the elder son of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), was martyred in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq by agents of Iran's Pahlavi regime. Born in holy Qom, where he mastered Islamic sciences and reached the level of Ijtehad at the young age of 27, for ten years he lectured at the Najaf Islamic Seminary, and was always alongside his father in the struggle against the despotic Shah’s regime. His martyrdom accelerated the pace of struggles of the Iranian people and led to the victory of the Islamic Revolution a year and four months later.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Morocco's King Hassan II died at the age of 70 after ruling for 38 years. He was a repressive ruler and brutally suppressed any opposition. At the same time, he was over friendly with the enemies of Islam, especially the illegal Zionist entity, despite the claim of his family to be descendents of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).  He was succeeded by his son, Mohammad VI.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Mohammad Zaher Shah, the former King of Afghanistan, died as a private citizen in Kabul at the age of 93. In 1973, he was deposed by his cousin, brother-in-law, and former Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud Khan, while in Italy for eye surgery, after a reign of 40 years – having ascended the throne in 1933 on the assassination of his father, the British-installed Mohammad Nader Shah. On his return to Afghanistan in 2002 after an absence of 29 years, Zaher Shah was given the honourary title “Father of the Nation”.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, the largest recorded hailstone in the US fell in Vivian, South Dakota, 20 cm in length, weighing 880 grams and a 47.3 cm circumference. A larger hailstone fell in the Gopalganj District of Bangladesh on 14 April 1986 weighing 1.02 kg that killed 92 people during a hailstorm.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, in Bahrain, the venerable religious leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah al-Ghoreifi disclosed that agents of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime have demolished 30 mosques during their so far 5-month-old state terrorism against the long suppressed Shi’ite Muslim majority of that Persian Gulf island state.

2 solar years ago, on this day in 2016 AD, over a hundred men, women and children were martyred and three hundred others injured when Saudi-backed Takfiri terrorists triggered two bomb blasts in the Deh Mazang area near Kabul, the Afghan capital, in the path of a peaceful protest march by the Shi’a Muslim Hazara ethnic community, demanding the changing of the TUTAP power project.

AS/MG