Today is Friday; 20th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Safar 1440 lunar hijri; and October 12, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2557 solar years ago, on this day in 539 BC, as per the Julian Calendar, the historical city of Babylon, in what is now Iraq, was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Iran, the Founder of Achaemenian Dynasty. In order to break through the impregnable fortifications of the city, which was once the centre of science, culture and civilization, Cyrus ordered his troops to divert the waters of the River Tigris that ran through Babylon, and through the now waterless canal his troops entered the city and accomplished the conquest. Cyrus borrowed the rich cultural and scientific heritage of Babylonia and Mesopotamia, which was the cradle of human civilization, to lay the foundations of the Persian Empire, as the first world power that would span parts of the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. For the next two centuries until the invasion of Alexander of Macedon, Babylon and Iraq were part of the Persian Empire. Later around 150 BC, the capital of the Parthian Empire of Iran was established in Iraq near Babylon in the city of Ctesiphon (in the vicinity of modern Baghdad), and continued to be the seat of power of the next Iranian dynasty, the Sassanid till the year 637 AD.

1319 lunar years ago, on this day in 121 AH, Zayd bin Ali, a son of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) – the great-grandson and 4th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – was cruelly martyred near Kufa in Iraq by the Godless Omayyad regime, at the age of 42. His mother was a virtuous lady from Sindh in what is now Pakistan, and he rose up against the tyranny of Hesham Ibn Abdul-Malik, the 10th self-styled caliph of the usurper regime, in order to safeguard the achievements of the uprising of his Infallible Grandfather, Imam Husain (AS). After being deserted by the Kufans, he bravely fought until he was martyred. His son Yayha buried him in the riverbed of the Euphrates by briefly diverting the waters and then restoring their normal flow, but the Omayyads bribed turncoats to find the location. They took out the corpse of this pious and learned member of the Prophet’s Household, decapitated it, and hung it on the gallows for four years. Zayd’s martyrdom was foretold by the Prophet of Islam over a hundred and ten years ago when he put his hand on the back of his younger grandson, and said: “O Husain, it will not be long until a man will be born among your descendants. He will be called Zayd; he will be killed as a martyr. On the day of resurrection, he and his companions will enter heaven.” Zayd’s body was later buried, and his head which had been sent to Damascus was, after the fall of the hated Omayyads, buried in Karak in Jordan, which was then part of Syria. Zayd’s sons were also persecuted, especially Yayha, who was martyred in 125 AH, after a valiant fight in distant Khorasan in the area called Jowzajan which is presently in Afghanistan. The Zaydi Shi’ite Muslims of Yemen revere Martyr Zayd as an Imam, although he never claimed the imamate, and was obedient to his elder brother, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), and after him to his nephew, Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS).

1173 lunar years ago, on this day in 257 AH, a person of obscure origin and said to be a descendant of slaves, who went by the name of Ali bin Mohammad and styled himself Sahib az-Zanj or Leader of the black-skinned people of East African origin, was finally killed in southern Iraq after having unleashed a great sedition and destruction. A Godless person, he lived for a while in the Abbasid capital, Samarra, where he mixed with some of the influential slaves of Caliph Muntasir and saw the deep financial discrimination among Muslims as a result of state policy. He moved to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, where he pretended to be Shi’a Muslim in order to rouse the people into rebellion against the caliphate. His followers grew so large that land taxes were collected in his name, but the rebellion failed, and he relocated to the Iraqi port city of Basra, where he claimed himself to be a Kharijite or renegade from Islam and started collecting around him the bonded labourers of the marshlands. Soon, supported by Bedouin Arabs and black-skinned people, he styled himself Emir and embarked on plunder, death and destruction. He launched a general massacre of the populace, burning entire localities including the Jame’ Mosque, where he killed the eminent grammarian Abbas bin Faraj Riyyashi while in prayer. His rebellion, which coincided with the secession of Egypt by Ahmad ibn Toloun and of the uprising in Iran of Yaqoub bin Laith Saffar, lasted 14 years, during which he seized southern Iraq up to Wasset and parts of Iran’s Khuzestan, defeating several armies sent by the Abbasid caliphs, until he was defeated and killed. He left a trail of destruction and famine, with agricultural lands desolate and as many as half-a-million people killed. The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), had prophesied the revolt of Saheb az-Zanj two centuries earlier, citing Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) as source of information, as is evident from the following passage in Sermon 127 of Nahj al-Balagha:

“O' Ahnaf! It is as though I see him advancing with an army which has neither dust nor noise, nor rustling of reins, nor neighing of horses. They are trampling the ground with their feet as if they are the feet of ostriches.”

695 lunar years ago, on this day in 745 AH, Spanish Muslim poet and literary figure, Mohammad Ibn Yusuf Ibn Ali al-Barbari, known as Abu-Hayyan al-Gharnati, passed away at the age of 91 in Cairo, Egypt. Born in Granada (Gharnata) in southern Spain, he travelled widely to acquire knowledge, before moving to Ceuta in what is now Morocco in North Africa. He then traveled through Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and reached Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. He wrote the famous book “al-Bahr al-Muheet” on the linguistic meanings of the holy Qur’an. A master of Arabic grammar, he considered himself a student of the school of the celebrated Iranian grammarian of Arabic language, Sibwaiyh of Shiraz. He has left behind numerous books, including a Diwan or collection of poems.

678 lunar years ago, on this day in 762 AH, Muslim astronomer, mathematician, and theologian, Ali Ibn Mohammad Ibn ad-Durayhim, passed away. He lived mostly in Syria and Egypt and lectured for many years on various topics. He is considered the pioneer of the science of cryptanalysis. In fact, he was the first to analyze the various capabilities of substitution for cipher or zero, and to present what is called today the Vigenere Table. He actually formulated this table more than two centuries before the European Blaise de Vigenere, who seems to have copied it from Islamic sources. Ibn ad-Durayhim's book entitled "Clear Chapters Goals and Solving Ciphers" was recently discovered. It includes the use of statistical techniques pioneered by the famous philosopher Yaqub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi.

536 solar years ago, on this day in 1492 AD, Italian navigator Christopher Columbus’ Spanish-funded expedition across the Atlantic Ocean, with the help of Spanish Muslim navigators, who knew the routes to the ‘New World’, made landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in an island of the Bahamas which he named San Salvador, but which was called Guanahani by the local Taino people, whom the Spaniard Christians exterminated. Columbus seriously underestimated the size of the Earth – never dreaming that two great continents blocked his path to the east. Even after four voyages to America, he believed until the end of his life in 1506 that he had discovered an isolated corner of Asia.

486 solar years ago, on this day in 1532 AD, Spanish invaders, led by Francisco Pizarro, attacked Peru in South America, destroying the advanced Inca Empire and massacring the native people.

205 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, the Golestan Treaty was imposed on Qajarid Iran by Czarist Russia in the village of the same name in the Caucasus, following ten years of warfare that led to the loss of vast areas of northwestern Iran in the Caucasus. As per the treaty that was mediated by the crafty British, the Russians occupied what are now the republics of Daghestan and Georgia, as well as Baku in northern Azarbaijan. Thirteen years later, Russia again invaded Iran, and occupied other Iranian regions, such as Armenia, Nakhchivan and what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan.

196 solar years ago, on this day in 1822 AD, Prince Pedro proclaimed Brazil as an independent country and himself an emperor on his 24^th birthday, over a year after the return to Lisbon of his father King Joao VI, who in 1807 had shifted to Brazil the entire royal court following Portugal’s invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte of France. Portugal had seized this part of South America in 1500 with the landing of a fleet led by Pedro Alvares Cabral. The Portuguese almost drove into extinction the local Amerindians and forcibly Christianized other natives. They then kidnapped hundreds of thousands of black people from Africa to work as slaves on plantations and farmlands. On 29 August 1825, Portugal formally recognized the independence of Brazil. In 1831 Pedro I abdicated the throne of Brazil in favour of his minor son, Pedro II and returned to Europe, where shortly after retaking Portugal following a civil war, and ascending the throne in Lisbon as Pedro IV, he died of tuberculosis in 1834. In 1889 Brazil became a republic, a year after Pedro II whose reforms such as abolishment of slavery in 1888, angered plantation owners and led to his overthrow.

195 solar years ago, on this day in 1823 AD, Charles Macintosh of Scotland began selling for the first time what he had invented and called a raincoat for protection of clothes from showers.

147 solar years ago, on this day in 1871 AD, the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) was enacted by British colonialists in India, which unjustly branded over 160 local communities as 'Criminal Tribes' or ‘hereditary criminals’. This discriminatory law was repealed in 1949, after India gained Independence.

94 solar years ago, on this day in 1924 AD, French journalist, author, poet, and Nobel Prize laureate, Anatole France, died at the age of 80 in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire in central France. Born in Paris, he was considered the ideal French man of letters.

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the prominent Iranian researcher and translator, Mahmoud Riyazi, passed away. He has left behind several important works such as “Emergence and Downfall of Big Powers”, and “Energy Crisis”.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, General Pervez Musharraf ousted Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup and seized power in Pakistan, a day after the latter had dismissed him from his post of chairman of the army's joint chief of staff. For nine years, Musharraf stayed in power, by changing the constitution and becoming the president through rigged elections. He turned the country into a US base for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. In July 2008 he was forced to resign and hand over power to an elected civilian government.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Iranian President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, welcomed by tens of thousands of Lebanese people in Beirut, including Christians and Sunni Muslims, throwing rose petals at his cavalcade, underscored the growing power of the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Resistance in the face of US-Zionist plots. Later, the Iranian president visited the border with occupied Palestine and boldly denounced the illegal Zionist entity.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, East African academic and political scientist, Professor Ali Mazrui, passed away at the age of 81 in New York, where he was Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, and as per his will, his body was taken to his hometown Mombasa in Kenya for burial in his ancestral graveyard as per Islamic rites. After preliminary studies in Mombasa, he completed higher education in Britain, and returned to East Africa to teach at the University of Kampala in Uganda, from where after expulsion by the dictator Idi Amin, he settled in the US, teaching as professor in several universities. An expert writer on African and Islamic studies as well as North-South relations, he was critical of African socialism and all strains of Marxism. He argued that communism was a Western import just as unsuited for the African condition as the earlier colonial attempts to install European type governments. At the same time he was a prominent critic of the current world order. He believed the capitalist system was deeply exploitative of Africa, and that the West practiced global apartheid. He opposed the West’s interventions in the developing world, such as the US war on Iraq, and was against the policies of the Zionist entity, Israel – one of the first to link the treatment of Palestinians with South Africa's apartheid. Mazrui was also a well-known commentator on Islam and Islamism. He rejected violence and terrorism and praised the anti-imperialist sentiment that plays an important role in the modern world. He maintained that the dynamism of the shari’a law is compatible with democracy. Mazrui wrote several books, including on his native Swahili language and culture.

Today, 20^th of the Iranian month of Mehr, is the day for commemoration of the famous Iranian poet, Khwajah Shams od-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi. Born in the southern city of Shiraz in 1348 AD, he was a memorizer of the Holy Qur’an and Arabic literature, and thus popularly known as "Hafez". Being inspired by Islamic teachings, he used unique metaphors, writing the best Persian ghazals or lyrics in the history of Iran's literature. For this reason, the Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in an address to congress, commemorating the 600th anniversary of the death of Hafez, termed the commemoration of Hafez as the commemoration of Islamic and Iranian culture and pure thoughts, while naming Hafez as the most glittering cultural figure of Iran. Up to now, numerous commentaries have been written on the Diwan of Hafez, which has been translated into major world languages. Hafez passed away in 1413 AD.

AS/SS