Today is Monday; 16th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 28th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1440 lunar hijri; and October 8, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2337 solar years ago, on this day in 319 BC, Pyrrhus Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic period, was born. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house (from 297 BC), and later he became king of Epirus (306–302, 297–272 BC) and Macedon (288–284, 273–272 BC). He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome. Some of his battles, though successful, caused him heavy losses, from which the term “Pyrrhic Victory” was coined.

1404 lunar years ago, on this day in 36 AH, Hudhayfa ibn Yaman, the loyal companion of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), passed away in Mada’en, Iraq, where he was serving as governor. Born in Mecca, he was from the Abs tribe of Yemen, and embraced the truth of Islam shortly after the Prophet declared his universal mission. He migrated to Medina after the Prophet and was considered both a Muhajer (migrant from Mecca) and Ansar (helper from Medina), since he was allied to a clan in Medina. The Prophet gave him the option to count himself in either of the two groups, and he chose to be known as one of the Ansar. The Prophet confirmed his choice and made a pact of brotherhood between him and the other loyal companion Ammar ibn Yasser – a migrant from Mecca. Hudhayfa participated in the Battle of Ohad, along with his father, whom certain Muslims suspiciously killed and claimed it was an accident. During the Battle of Khandaq, he was asked by the Prophet to obtain information about the enemy's camp, and he successfully did. He was trusted by the Prophet and informed him of many future events and seditions, including the true characteristics of some people, especially the hypocrites amongst his companions. When a group of hypocrites from among the Muslims lay in ambush to assassinate the Prophet while he was as returning during night from the expedition to Tabuk, a streak of lightning illuminated the sky and stayed for a while instead of a brief flash, thereby exposing the conspirators and revealing their identity to the Prophet and Hudhayfa. Since Hudhayfa was told by the Prophet the names of all the hypocrites, he is called him “Saheb as-Sirr” (close confidant of the Prophet). He is considered as one of the four prominent companions of Imam Ali (AS. The biographer al-Kashshi has cited a hadith in which Hudhayfa is considered one of the seven people because of whom God bestows His blessings and bounties on people. These seven people attended the funeral of the Noblest-ever lady, the Prophet’s daughter Hazrat Fatema az-Zahra (SA), who annoyed with the hypocrites willed to her husband, Imam Ali (AS) to bury her in the dead of night, without any person connected to the ruling regime attending her funeral. Hudhayfa narrated hadiths regarding the virtues of Imam Ali (AS) and the Ahl al-Bayt. He also narrated a hadith from the Prophet of Twelve Imams after him. Al-Mas'udi reported that Hudhayfa's two sons, Safwan and Sa'd, accompanied Imam Ali (AS) in the Battle of Siffin and attained martyrdom, while at-Tabari writes that Sa’d was alive during the rise of the Tawwabin (Penitents) to avenge the blood of the Martyr of Karbala Imam Husain (AS) and assisted them.

1379 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, 18 days after the heartrending tragedy of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the captive children and womenfolk of the Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), along with the heads of martyrs, mounted on spear-points, entered Ba’lbek in what is now Lebanon on their way to Damascus, the capital of the Godless Yazid, the self-styled caliph of the Omayyad regime. The noble captives were taken through a circuitous route passing through Mosul in Iraq, Nusaybin in what is now Turkey and Aleppo in Syria, where there are sacred places related to Imam Husain (AS), so that people on the normal straight route to the Syrian capital do not become aware of the tragedy of Karbala and rise up against Yazid. 

1313 solar years ago, on this day in 705 AD, the 5^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, died in Damascus at the age of 59 after a reign of 20 tyrannical years during which among a spate of crimes against Islam and humanity, he ordered his Godless general, Hajjaj Thaqafi, to defile the sanctity of the holy Ka’ba with fire and brimstone in order to kill the rival caliph, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr. Born in Mecca to the despicable Marwan, who along with his pagan father Hakam, was expelled by Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) for ridiculing Islam, he grew up in Medina, where his father as the cousin and son-in-law of Caliph Othman Ibn Affan manipulated all state affairs and was the actual cause of the latter’s murder. When Mu’awiyyah Ibn Abu Sufyan seized the caliphate from the Prophet’s elder grandson Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), Marwan was appointed governor of Medina, and years later in 63 AH, along with his son Abdul-Malik, was lucky to be allowed to leave for Syria on the seizure of Arabia by Abdullah ibn Zubayr. In 64 AH, he found himself propelled to the truncated caliphate following the horribly mysterious death of the tyrant Yazid – perpetrator of the tragedy of Karbala – abdication of the latter’s son Mu’awiyya II a few months later, and his own father Marwan’s rise as caliph and death in the harem nine months later. He faced an uncertain future with the Omayyad caliphate shrunken to Damascus and its environs as Mokhtar Ibn Abu Obaidah, the Avenger of the Martyrs of Karbala, was all set to wipe out the Omayyads with his string of victories against the killers of the Prophet’s younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS). At this crucial juncture, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr, again blundered and refusing to join forces with Mokhtar for obliterating the Omayyads, he instead he sent his brother Mus’ab to attack and kill Mokhtar, thereby giving breathing space to Abdul-Malik and in fact allowing him to regroup and attack the divided armies of Iraq and Hijaz. What followed was the revival of Omayyad tyranny and suppression of Muslims, especially the Prophet’s progeny and their followers. Abdul-Malik initiated brazenly racist and chauvinistic polices against the letter and spirit of Islam that made Arabs the dominant class, hand-in-hand with rabid Arabization that deprived Syrians, Egyptians, and North Africans of their native languages and rich cultural heritage. In the eastern parts of the empire, however, these apartheid policies failed to erode the Persian language and culture of the Iranians and other Muslim peoples, who in accordance with the message of the holy Qur'an, mastered Arabic language, literature and grammar, as well as hadith and Islamic sciences, while preserving for posterity the positive aspects of the legacies of the past.

784 lunar years ago, on this day in 656 AH, Baghdad was sacked by the Buddhist army of the Mongol marauder, Hulagu Khan (grandson of the bloodthirsty Chingiz Khan), who had the 37th and last self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, al-Musta'sem, rolled in a carpet and trampled to death under the feet of horses. The grand library of Baghdad, containing countless historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed. It is said the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantity of books flung into the river. Death counts vary widely and cannot be easily substantiated, running into estimates ranging from 200,000 to a million. The Mongols looted and destroyed mosques, palaces, libraries, hospitals and buildings that had been the work of generations, since the founding of Baghdad five centuries ago. So terrible was the sack that Baghdad lay desolate for several generations. The incompetent Musta’sem, whose 16-year rule was confined to Iraq and some eastern parts of Syria, had neither raised an army to defend Baghdad nor did he attempt to negotiate with Hulagu, to whom two years earlier, he had supplied troops to conquer the Ismaili Nizari stronghold of Alamout (200 km west of modern Tehran). It seems the Abbasid ruler not just paid the price of assisting infidels against fellow Muslims, but also the far more serious treachery of his great-grandfather, the 34^th self-styled caliph, an-Naser-Billah, some 40 years ago, in inviting Chingiz to attack the empire of the Khwarezm Shah, because of personal dispute, some years before the Mongol invasion actually occurred. The curtain thus came down on 524 lunar years of the Abbasid caliphate founded by Abu'l-Abbas Saffah by hijacking the sentiments of the Arab and Iranian masses for the Ahl al-Bayt, thereby depriving once again the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) of their political right to rule the Islamic realm. The Abbasids exercised actual authority for only some 150 years, after which they became mere puppets in the hands of the Iranian and Turkic emirs, while independent dynasties cropped up in all the provinces, except for the heartland Iraq. The Abbasids never ruled Islamic Spain, where remnants of the Omayyads held power, while the Maghreb (Morocco) was lost during the early days of Haroun Rashid to Idris, a great-grandson of the Prophet's elder grandson, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS). Over a century later, all of North Africa, followed by Syria and the Hejaz, were taken over by the Fatemids, who also claimed descent from the Prophet.

538 solar years ago, on this day in 1480 AD, the Great Standoff on either side of the Ugra River in Russia between the forces of Ahmad Khan, the ruler of the Great Horde, and Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, resulted in the withdrawal of both the adversaries and an odd celebration of victory by both of them. In 1476 Ivan III stopped paying the annual tribute to the Tatar-Mongol Muslims, which they had been collecting for the past two centuries. At the time, Ahmad Khan was busy with his struggle against fellow Muslim Tartars of the Crimean Khanate, and this led to formation of strange alliances. On one side was Christian Russia and Muslim Crimea, while on the other side was the Muslim Great Horde aligned with the Christian Poland-Lithuania union of King Casimir IV. After a brief battle, Ahmad drew back and decided to wait for Casimir's army. Ivan III also withdrew and decided against crossing the river. Ahmad Khan chose not to attack until the Lithuanians show up but they didn't because of Crimean raid on their territories. With the winter fast approaching Ahmad turned south, while Ivan returned to Moscow. As Nikolai Karamzin writes in his "History of the Russian State": "It should be an odd image: two armies ran away from each other, not pursued by anyone", and then celebrated it as victory. It is worth recalling that Russia was subjugated by Genghiz Khan's son Batu Khan in 1255, and the Golden Horde that he founded continued for a full century until 1359, reaching its peak during the 30-year reign of Uzbeg Khan who converted to Islam. The territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the right banks of the Danube River, extending east into Siberia. In the south its lands bordered on the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains up to the frontiers of the Mongol Ilkhanate Dynasty of Iran. The 1396 invasion of Tamerlane broke the Golden Horde into smaller khanates and by 1433 it was simply referred to as the Great Horde that controlled Russia.

484 solar years ago, on this day in 1534 AD, the English Parliament on the orders of King Henry VIII severed its ties with the Roman Catholic Church when Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage with his first wife, Catherine of Spain. The Anglican Church now replaced the Catholic Church in England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury taking on the duties of the Pope.

162 solar years ago, on this day in 1856 AD, the Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the “Arrow Incident” on the Pearl River when Chinese police boarded the British vessel Arrow, arrested 12 Chinese crewmen on suspicion of piracy and lowered the British flag. The France, the US, and Russia, soon joined the British in subjecting China to a multipronged offense that ended in 1860 after the deliberate burning of the Summer Palaces by the western armies to humiliate the Chinese.  "Opium War" refers to one of the British tactical objectives: legalising the opium trade, expanding coolie trade, opening all of China to British merchants, and exempting foreign imports from internal transit duties.

160 lunar years ago, on this day in 1280 AH, the scholar, Mirza Mohammad Taher Tonekabouni, was born in Kelardasht, Mazandaran Province. He came to Tehran for higher religious and later joined the Madrasa-e Sepah-Salar as lecturer. He entered in politics and was elected to the 1^st and later 4^th Majlis, He passed away in Tehran at the age of 80 and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the famous theologian, Shaikh Sadouq in Rayy.

137 solar years ago, on this day in 1881 AD, Vietnam was hit by a massive storm that destroyed houses and farms, claiming the lives of nearly 300,000 people, mostly in the south.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, the First Balkan War began with tiny Montenegro declaring war on the Ottoman Empire, with the support of major west European powers. The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913. By the early 20^th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had seceded from the Ottoman Empire. In 1912, these countries formed the Balkan League. The First Balkan War broke out when the League attacked the Ottoman Empire on 8 October and was ended seven months later by the Treaty of London. After five centuries, the Ottoman Empire lost virtually all of its possessions in the Balkans, and large number of European Muslims began to be persecuted in these regions.

90 solar years ago, on this day in 1928 AD, troops stormed the house of prominent leader of Iran's Constitutional Movement, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres, and arrested him along with his family and friends on the orders of the British-installed dictator, Reza Khan Pahlavi. The Ayatollah, who in 1925 had unsuccessfully opposed the dissolution of the Qajarid dynasty by the Pahlavi upstart, was exiled to Khaf and then to Kashmar in southern Khorasan, where in 1937 he was poisoned on the orders of Reza Khan and attained martyrdom.

82 solar years ago, on this day in 1936 AD, Munshi Premchand, famous for his modern Urdu-Hindi literature, died in Lucknow at the age of 56. Born near Benares in northern India, he learnt Urdu and Persian in childhood, and years later taught himself English. After his mother's death, he sought solace in fiction, and developed a fascination for books, especially after hearing stories from the Persian-language fantasy epic "Tilism-e Hoshruba". His writings prominently featured realism, describing the problems of the poor and the urban middle-class. He used literature for the purpose of arousing public awareness about national and social issues and often wrote on topics related to corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, poverty, colonialism and the freedom movement. Among his works mention could be made of “Soz-e Watan”, “Jalwa-e Isaar”, “Bazaar-e Hosn”, and “Maidan-e Amal”.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1971 AD, prominent researcher, writer and preacher, Seyyed Mohammad Musawi Shirazi, son of Sultan al-Va’ezin Ali Akbar Shirazi, passed away at the age of 75. Born in Tehran, he left for Iraq with his father at the age of 12 and in the holy city of Karbala completed his studies. On his return to Iran, he resided for a time in Kermanshah, before embarking on research and scholarly tours abroad that took him to Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt and the Subcontinent. During these trips he held dialogues and debates with Sunni Muslims as well as followers of other creeds, such as Jews, Christians, and Hindus. In India, in 1927, he had a marathon 8-hour long discussion with the Leader of the independence movement against the British, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, which was widely reflected in the Indian press. His most famous debate, however, was in Peshawar in what is now Pakistan in 1927 that lasted for ten days (beginning on January 27), with two prominent Sunni religious scholars of Afghanistan – Hafiz Muhammad Rashid, and Sheikh Abdu's-Salaam; both of whom from Kabul. A condition of the dialogue was that only sources acceptable to both sects would be cited. The dialogue was held in Persian, common to both parties, while four reporters recorded its details in the presence of approximately 200 people (both Shi’as and Sunnis).  The dialogues were a model of mutual respect and in spite of the seriousness of the subject, there was no breach of decorum. The transcript of the dialogue was first published in the newspapers each day the following morning. Later it was published in book form titled “Shabha-e Peshawar” (translated into English as Peshawar Nights) that became a classic authority in the Islamic World. He also authored the book titled “Sad Maqala-e Sultani” (100 Essays on Refutation of Judaism and Christianity) as well as the 2-volume “Grouh-e Rastaragaan” also known as “Firqa’e Najiyya” – reference to the famous hadith of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA): After me the Ummah will split into 72 sects of which only one will attain salvation and enter paradise.

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, Saddam of Baghdad’s repressive Ba’th minority regime ordered chemical bombardment of Sumaar near Qasr-e Shirin in western Iran, resulting in the martyrdom of several civilians. During the 8-year war he imposed on Iran on the orders of the US, Saddam, who was supplied these internationally banned weapons by the West, especially Germany, used them on numerous occasions, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of around a hundred thousand Muslim combatants and civilians. Many of the chemically-scarred Iranians are still leading a painful life three decades after having fallen victim to toxic weapons, while the West, despite its claim to prohibition of use of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, has ignored the plight of the world’s prime victim of unconventional warfare and terrorism – the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, US helicopter gunships in the Persian Gulf, in a blatant act of state terrorism and open support for Saddam of Baghdad’s repressive Ba’th minority regime, whose armies were losing on the war fronts, in an unprovoked attack, sank three Iranian patrol boats.

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, Zionist troops attacked Palestinian worshippers at the al-Aqsa Mosque, martyring 20 and wounding scores of others. The blind US support for Israel's crimes against humanity, prevented the passing of any UN resolution against the illegal Zionist entity.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, a 7.6-magnitude quake hit Kashmir killing thousands of people in parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. The epicenter was Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. As many as 90,000 people were killed in the border regions of the three countries while 3.3 million people lost their homes and hearths.

AS/SS