Today is Thursday; 26th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 8th of the Islamic month of Safar 1440 lunar hijri; and October 18, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1698 solar years ago, on this day in 320 AD, Greek philosopher Pappus of Alexandria, observed an eclipse of the Sun in Egypt and wrote a commentary on “Almagest” or The Great Astronomer, a treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by the Greek-Egyptian scientist Claudius Ptolemy.

1405 lunar years ago, on this day in 35 AH, the loyal Iranian disciple of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), Salman Farsi, or the Persian, passed away in Mada’en in Iraq, where his mausoleum still stands today, with the Prophet’s famous hadith inscribed in bold letters on its walls, reading “Salman minna Ahl al-Bayt” (Salman is from us the People of the Blessed Household), an honour that was not bestowed on any Arab companion of the Prophet. Salman, whose name was Rouzbeh, fed up with the weird rites of the Zoroastrians, left his hometown Shiraz in search of the true religion after becoming acquainted with Nestorian Christians. He travelled widely and learned the tenets of monotheism from several hermits in Syria, who had retreated into isolated desert monasteries in order to preserve the monotheist teachings of Prophet Jesus (PBUH), after Paul the Hellenized Jew had distorted the Gospels to coin the absurd belief of trinity. When death approached the last such hermit, he advised Salman to travel to Arabia and await the advent of the Last and Greatest of Prophets. On arrival in Arabia, he was kidnapped by Jews and sold into slavery. For long years he toiled in cultivating date-palms, until one day he encountered enlightened visages speaking of monotheism and divine justice. A spark lit Salman’s heart, and in order to test the visitors, he offered them some dates as "sadaqa" (charity), since he had read in the scriptures that alms and charity are forbidden for the Last Prophet and his progeny. The Prophet gave the charity dates to his companions to eat, while he himself, along with his cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali (AS), politely declined the offer. Salman beamed with joy at finding the ultimate goal of his quest, and this time took some dates and offered the Prophet and the Imam as gifts, which they accepted. Salman immediately recited the two-fold testimony of faith: "ash-hado an la ilaha il-Allah; wa ash-hado anna Muhammadan Rasoul-Allah” (I testify there is no god but Allah; and I testify Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah), thus becoming a Muslim. The Prophet paid a big amount of money and met other conditions of the miserly Jew to procure the release of Salman, who thereafter loyally served the cause of Islam. It was on the advice of this faithful Iranian Sahabi that the Muslims dug the “khandaq” (trench) around the most vulnerable part of Medina, when a 10,000 plus force of pagan Arabs and Israelites tried to attack the Prophet and obliterate Islam. After the Prophet’s passing away, Salman was among the few Muslims who were loyal and steadfast to Islam and the divinely-decreed right of Imam Ali (AS). In his last days he served as governor of Mada’en (Ctesiphon, the former Sassanid capital).

898 solar years ago, on this day in 1130 AD, Zhu Xi, Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer of the Song dynasty, was born. He was a Confucian scholar who was the leading figure of the School of Principle and the most influential rationalist Neo-Confucian in China. His contributions to Chinese philosophy including his assigning special significance to the Analects, the Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean (the Four Books), his emphasis on the investigation of things (gewu), and the synthesis of all fundamental Confucian concepts, formed the basis of Chinese bureaucracy and government for over 700 years. He has been called the second most influential thinker in Chinese history, after Confucius himself. He died at the age of 70.

622 solar years ago, on this day in in 1356 AD, the town of Basel, Switzerland, was destroyed in a devastating earthquake in the range of 6 to 7.1 degrees on the Richter scale, resulting in the death of thousands of people. It is the most significant seismological event to have occurred in Central Europe in recorded history.

513 solar years ago, on this day in 505 AD, the Egyptian Sunni scholar Abdur-Rahman Jalal od-Din as-Suyuti, passed away in Cairo at the age of 60. Born in a family of Persian origin that had migrated from Iran during the Mamluk period and settled in Asyut, in Upper Egypt from where it derived the family name as-Suyuti, he was a follower of the Shafe’i School. An expert in jurisprudence, hadith, history, exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, and Arabic grammar and literature, he earned the title Ibn al-Kutub or Son of Books. His books are still taught today in Islamic seminaries. In his exegesis titled "ad-Dur al-Manthour" (Scattered Pearls), he has pointed to the ayahs revealed by God Almighty on the outstanding merits of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), i.e. Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), Imam Ali (AS), Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS). He wrote a separate book on Merits of the Ahl al-Bayt. Suyuti traveled to Syria, Hijaz, Yemen, India and Morocco, and settled down towards the end of his life in his homeland Egypt.

478 solar years ago, on this day in 1540 AD, Spanish invasion forces led by Hernando de Soto destroyed the fortified Amerindian town of Mabila in present-day Alabama, killing Chief Tuskaloosa, massacring men and children, and kidnapping and raping women. The Spaniards, carrying the cross in one hand and the sword in the other, destroyed the centuries-old native civilizations of Central and South America.

453 solar years ago, on this day in 1565 AD, Philippines was occupied by Spain, following the landing of Portuguese sailor, Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 AD. The Spanish forcibly converted the people to Christianity at a time when Islam was enlightening the people of the Philippines. The Spanish plundered the natural resources of the Philippines until the year 1898 AD, when they were defeated by the US, which occupied these islands. In 1946, the Philippines finally gained independence. Philippine consists of over 7,000 Islands. It is situated in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, covering an area of 300,000 sq km. Over 15 percent of the people are Muslims and mainly settled in the south.

346 solar years ago, on this day in 1672 AD, Poland and Turkey signed the Peace of Buczacz to end hostilities between the two powers in south-central Europe.

158 solar years ago, on this day in 1860 AD, Xianfeng Emperor, the 7^th ruler of the Manchu Dynasty of China was forced to sign the unequal Treaty of Tientsin at the Convention of Peking, thereby formally ending the Second Opium War imposed on China by Britain, France, the US and Russia. These series of unequal treaties were designed to humiliate China and opened more Chinese ports to the foreigners, permitted foreign legations in the Chinese capital Beijing, allowed Christian missionary activity, and legalized the import of opium.

151 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, the US took formal possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million on June 30 of the same year. The day is marked annually in the state as Alaska Day. Russia sold the rich land of Alaska, situated northeast of Canada and on the coastlines of Pacific Ocean and near the Arctic circle, due to its financial needs. Alaska covers an area of over 1.5 million square km. It is now the 49th US state and is rich in natural resources, especially oil and gold, in addition to fishing. The deal was conducted by US Secretary of State, William Seward for about 2 cent per acre, and was long derided by Americans as Seward’s Folly for Alaska’s remoteness.

147 solar years ago, on this day in 1871 AD, Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor of a calculating machine, died at the age of 79. Considered a "father of the computer", he is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, Italy forced the tottering Ottoman Empire to sign a treaty by which it occupied Libya. A year earlier the Italian troops had invaded Libya. The people of Libya resisted against the Italian occupiers for years, and in 1951 won independence, five years following Italy’s defeat in World War 2 and occupation of the country by a joint British-French force.

96 solar years ago, on this day in 1922 AD, the BBC Radio Station was founded in England. Initially it was a private radio station but it came under the supervision of British government and became a state-run English radio in 1927. BBC Network started to air its TV programs as of 1936. The budget of BBC radio station, which broadcasts programs in different languages across the world, is allocated by the British regime. Although BBC claims to be impartial, it has worked as the propagandist and mouthpiece of the British regime and has set the stage for London's interference in the domestic affairs of different countries. Moreover, BBC has always aired biased reports and news, justifying the colonial policies of the West, especially Britain, in Third World countries.

87 solar years ago, on this day in 1931 AD, Thomas Alva Edison, the American inventor who held a world record 1,093 patents (including those held jointly) and created the world's first industrial research laboratory, died at the age of 88. He showed an early curiosity for explanations of how everything worked and was especially interested in chemistry. He began selling newspapers on the railroad at age 12, and learned how to operate a telegraph. In 1868, his first invention was an electric vote-recording machine. In 1869, he made improvements on the stock-ticker. In 1876 he moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, N.J., where he invented his phonograph (1877) and the first prototype of a commercially practical incandescent electric light bulb (1879). Other inventions included storage batteries, a dictaphone, and a mimeograph. By the late 1880s he made motion pictures, and by 1912 was experimenting with talking pictures.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, Iranian poet, journalist and patriotic politician, Mirza Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi, was martyred under torture in prison at the age of 50 by the British-installed Pahlavi regime. Born in Yazd, he was expelled from school at the age of 16 during the Constitutional Movement for writing poetry against despotism of the Qajarid Dynasty. He became politically active and was imprisoned because of writing material in opposition to the infamous 1919 Anglo-Persian Agreement. In prison, he protested that “He whose only offense is love of the motherland / No creed would condemn to a dark cell.” In 1921, he published the political newspaper “Toufan” (storm), winning fame for his poetry and constant attacks in his editorials against the British agent, Reza Khan, who was installed as Shah of Iran in 1925. In 1939, he was arrested, sentenced to prison at Tehran's Qasr prison, and killed by air injection. Among his poems is a lampooning of British politician, Lord Curzon for his meddling in Iranian affairs during the waning years of the Qajarid era:

Lord Curzon has gotten angry

He is going to write a lament;

We don't exchange dignity with abasement

We don't obey the British embassy;

O' Curzon, leave us

You can't exploit the country of Jamshid;”

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, in a blatant act of state terrorism, the US, using 6 warships and 3 aircraft attacked and destroyed the two Iranian oil platforms of “Reshadat” and “Risalat” off Rostum Island in the Persian Gulf, to show its support for Saddam of Iraq’s repressive Ba’th minority regime whose forces were suffering defeats on the battlefronts of the 8-year imposed war.

27 lunar years ago, on this day in 1413 AH, the Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abul-Qasem Musavi Khoyi, passed away at the age of 96 in Kufa, a year and some five months after the brutally crushed popular uprising of the Iraqi people against the repressive Ba’th minority regime, during which he was forcibly taken to Baghdad and made to appear on TV with the bloodthirsty dictator, Saddam. It is believed the regime martyred him through poisoning. Born in the northwestern Iranian city of Khoy, after preliminary studies in Tabriz, he left for holy Najaf in Iraq at the age of 13 years to continue his studies. Here, his piety and knowledge attracted the attention of the Indian-based Iranian religious scholar, Mirza Ahmad Najafi-Tabrizi, who gave his daughter in marriage to him and lodged him in his own house. Mirza Ahmad used to frequent the semi-independent state of Banganapalle in south India, ruled by a Seyyed family of Iranian origin, who were patrons of scholars and learning. Soon Ayatollah Khoyi mastered various sciences such as logic, rhetoric, theology, jurisprudence and philosophy, and in the process attained the status of Ijtehad. In 1971, he succeeded Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin al-Hakim as the leading Marja’ of the Islamic world and thereafter groomed a large number of scholars from Iran, Iraq, the Subcontinent, Bahrain and Lebanon. Among his valuable books, mention can be made of “Lectures in the Principles of Jurisprudence”, in 10 volumes, “Islamic Law” in 18 volumes, and "Mu'jam Rijal al-Hadith" in 24 volumes. The last named is an authoritative work on evaluation of narrators of hadith. He was also politically conscious of the issues of the World of Islam, and in regard to the Palestinian cause, he issued a fatwa, emphasizing the need to defend Palestine and to liberate Holy Qods. During the 8-year war imposed on Iran in the 1980s by the US through Saddam, he refused to yield to the Ba’thist regime’s pressures to denounce the Islamic Republic, even though his house was frequently subjected to water and electricity cuts on Saddam’s orders.

AS/SS