Today is Tuesday, 23rd of the Iranian month of Mordad 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah 1439 lunar hijri; and August 14, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1436 solar years ago, on this day in 582 AD, Emperor Tiberius II Constantine of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, died at the age of 47 after an 8-year reign during the war he had restarted with the Sassanid Empire of Iran, in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Armenia. The seesaw struggle was a strategic blunder by Tiberius, who on becoming ruler had concluded a deceitful 3-year truce with Khosrow Anushirvan, the 22nd Sassanid Emperor, in order to buy time for renewal of the war that had started two years earlier in 572 by his predecessor Justinian, and was to last 19 years till 591. The almost four centuries of inconclusive warfare between the Sassanids and Byzantines (respectively the heirs of the warring Parthian and Roman empires), sapped the energy of the two superpowers and led to their collapse as Arab Muslim armies swept across the region to completely change the destiny of the region, in which Iran soon emerged as a powerful Islamicized pole with far greater influence on the region and beyond than in pre-Islamic eras.

737 solar years ago, on this day in 1281 AD, during the second Mongol attempt to conquer Japan, a fleet sent by Kublai Khan disappeared in a typhoon. A Mongol army of 45,000 from Korea, joined an armada of 120,000 men from China to land at Hakozaki Bay. The typhoon destroyed the fleet. Survivors ended up as slaves.

603 solar years ago, on this day in 1415 AD, Henry the Navigator of Portugal, taking advantage of the weakening of Muslim rule in Spain and northwest Africa, launched a surprise attack on the Maranid Dynasty of Morocco and occupied the port city of Ceuta in the battle of the same name. He mercilessly slaughtered Muslim defenders in what is known as “baptism of blood”.

426 solar years ago, on this day in 1592 AD, the naval Battle of Hansan Island, also known as the Battle of Hansando, occurred near the Korean island of Hansan, and was one of the most important battles of the Imjin War. Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin destroyed at least 47 Japanese ships and captured 12. Yi's victory in this battle became a turning point in the campaign. This battle is considered the third largest naval battle in world history, after the Battle of Salamis between the Greeks and Achaemenid Persia, and the Battle of Gravelines between England and Spain.

420 solar years ago, on this day in 1598 AD, during the Nine Years' War, in the Battle of the Yellow Ford, Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeated an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.

180 lunar years ago, on this day in 1259 AH, Ayatollah Shaikh Fazlollah Noori was born in Mazandaran in a religious family. A product of the seminaries of the holy cities of Iraq, where his teachers included the famous Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi (of the anti-tobacco movement), on his return to Iran, he strove to promote justice in society, playing a leading role in the Constitutional Movement against the despotism of the Qajarid kings. After formation of the first national parliament and drafting of the constitution, he voiced his protest to some of its clauses which were contrary to Islam. He staged a sit-in at the shrine of Hazrat Abdul-Azim al-Hassani in Rayy, south of Tehran, along with other leading activists, ending the protest when parliament promised not to contradict the shar'ia. Colonial agents plotted against him and martyred him on trumped up charges by hanging him in front of the parliament.

176 solar years ago, on this day in 1842 AD, during the genocidal conflicts waged by the US against the native Amerindians, the Second Seminole War ended, and the Seminole people were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma from their ancestral homes in Florida. The US has a very black, bleak, and bloody record of genocide and persecution of the native Amerindians and the black people.

168 lunar years ago, on this day in 1271 AH, the Ottoman Turkish Empire allied with the French and British forces to inflict a crushing defeat on the Russian army in the Battle of Chernaya River, also known as Battle of Traktir Bridge, in which the Russians lost 7 thousand soldiers during the Crimean War – considered one of the first modern wars as it introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare, including the first tactical use of railways and the telegraph. It is also famous for the work of Florence Nightingale, who pioneered modern nursing practices while caring for wounded British soldiers. The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (for The Times newspaper) and Roger Fenton. News correspondence reaching Britain from the Crimea was the first time the public were kept informed of the day-to-day realities of war.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1904 AD, the cattle-herding Hereros, a tribe of Southwest Africa (later Namibia), became the first genocide victims of the 20th century, when the German occupiers launched a brutal massacre. General Lothar von Trotha, sent by Kaiser Wilhelm II to put down the native uprising, drove the Hereros into the desert and issued a formal "extermination order" (Schrecklichkeit) authorizing the slaughter of all who refused to surrender. Out of some 80,000 Hereros, 60,000 were killed. Of the 15,000 who surrendered, half of them died in prison camps, while some 9,000 escaped to neighboring countries. In 2004 a senior German government official apologized for the genocide during a ceremony in Namibia marking the 100^th anniversary of the massacre. In 2005 a German minister acknowledged violence by colonial Germany and admitted that following uprisings, the surviving Herero, Nama and Damara were interned in camps and put to forced labor of such brutality that many did not survive.

81 lunar years ago, on this day in 1358 AH, Egyptian scholar and poet, Tantawi Jowhari, passed away at the age of 71. He was a brilliant linguist, in addition to being a memorizer, exegete, and analyzer of Holy Qur'an. He was also fluent in English and always taught Islamic sciences.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, Japan surrendered during World War II and was occupied by the US, which a few days earlier had committed crimes against humanity by destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs, even though Japanese were on full retreat from war zones.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, Pakistan was born as an independent Muslim country on division of the Subcontinent by the British on the eve of their departure from India. It was the result of the long struggle against colonial rule by the Muslim League led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah – an Ismaili Shi’a Muslim who later became Athna Ash’ari (Twelver). The new country was made up of West Pakistan – on the borders of Afghanistan and Iran – and East Pakistan on the borders of Myanmar. In 1971, the eastern part seceded and became Bangladesh.

66 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD, French Economist, Alfred Sauvy, first used the term “Third World”, in an article in the French magazine L'Observateur to describe underdeveloped countries. He was paraphrasing a remark by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the Estates General in 1789, who had said the Third Estate is everything, has nothing, but wants to be something.

51 lunar years ago, on this day in 1388 AH, prominent researcher and dean of seminary, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Taqi Musavi, popular as “Muhaqqiq Damaad”, passed away in Qom at the age of 63 and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Ma’soumah (SA). Born in Ahmadabad near Ardakan, after preliminary studies in Yazd, he came to Qom and studied under the leading ulema, including the founder of the seminary, Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri, who gave his daughter in marriage to him – hence his epithet “Damaad” or son-in-law.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1971 AD, Britain ended its physical presence in Bahrain by declaring it independent, after reaching a deal two years earlier with the Pahlavi regime of Iran against reclaiming it, since for ages it was part of successive Persian Empires. The British have continued to exercise behind-the-scenes control over the affairs of Bahrain, along with the US, which has based its 5th naval fleet in this Persian Gulf island state. For the past seven years, Bahrain is the scene of public protests by the vast majority of people against the repressive rule of the minority regime of Aal-e Khalifa – originally pirates from Khor Abdullah waterway between Kuwait and Iraq’s Basra, who had occupied Bahrain by taking advantage of Iran’s weakness, and then sought British protection in the 19^th century. Site of the ancient Dilmun civilization and famous for its pearls, Bahrain on the advent of Islam became an important centre for followers of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). It has produced prominent Imami ulema.

44 solar years ago, on this day in 1974 AD, following massacre of 125 Muslims in Cyprus, the Turkish government dispatched troops to take control of the northern area of this island, which for centuries was part of the Ottoman Empire until Britain imposed the Cyprus Convention in 1878 to take over the Mediterranean Sea’s 3rd largest and most populous island that had a Muslim majority. Though the Ottomans retained nominal suzerainty, it was obvious that Cyprus was lost by the Muslim World, since the British lost no time in changing demographic patterns and making it a virtual Greek island. Today two-thirds of Cyprus is administered by Greeks, while the rest is called the ‘Turkish Republic of Cyprus’.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, the exegete of the holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Ali Najafi Kashani, passed away in his hometown Kashan at the age of 65. A product of the famous seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, where he attained the status of Ijtehad, on return to Iran, after a three-year stay at the seminary of holy Qom, he took up teaching in Kashan. Among his books is “Sincerity, the Greatest Merit”.

12 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, following the UN issuance of Security Council Resolution 1701 and its acceptance by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the 33-day Zionist-imposed war ended. The war was a US-Zionist plot, backed by reactionary Arab regimes, to try to destroy Lebanon's legendry anti-terrorist movement. But people's resistance, coupled with the military prowess of the Hezbollah, shattered the myth of military invincibility of Israel with tanks, ships and aircraft reduced to junk. Over 4,000 missiles fired at the Zionist entity by the Hezbollah endeared the movement and its dynamic leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrollah, to Arab and other Muslims worldwide, including conscientious thinkers in the West.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, in Iraq, Takfiri terrorists blew up through remote control four explosive-laden trucks in Qahataniya killing over 800 Kurds of the non-Muslim Izadi creed. Two years back, the Takfiri terrorists uprooted from their homes nearly 50,000 Izadis in the Sinjar area of Iraq near the Syrian border. Several thousand Izadi girls and women are being held as sex slaves by the Takfiris – with the tacit approval of the US and Arab reactionary regimes.

AS/ME