Today is Tuesday; 8th of the Iranian month of Aban 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 20th of the Islamic month of Safar 1440 lunar hijri; and October 30, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1381 solar years ago, on this day in 637 AD, Antioch in Syria surrendered to the Muslim forces after the Battle of the Iron Bridge that was fought near a nine-arch stone bridge spanning the River Orontes in what is now southeastern Turkey, but is geographically and historically part of Syria. The aftermath of the battle marked the nearly complete annexation of the large Roman province of Syria by the Muslims, one of whose victorious commanders in this battle was Malek Ashtar, who later loyally served the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS) and was made governor of Egypt with the famous epistle that is regarded till this day as the finest charter of human rights. The capture and clearance of Azaz was essential to ensure that no large Byzantine forces remained north of Aleppo, from where they could strike at the flank and rear of the Muslim army during the operation against Antioch. According to the pact, the defeated Byzantine soldiers were allowed to depart in peace. Following the surrender of Antioch, Muslim forces moved south along the Mediterranean coast and captured Latakia, Jablah and Tartus, while other columns were sent to subdue the remaining resistance in northern Syria.

1379 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the Arba’een or the traditional 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) was observed in Karbala, with the Prophet’s aged companion, Jaber ibn Abdullah al-Ansari visiting the graves of the martyrs of history’s most heartrending tragedy. Every year, the Arba’een anniversary is commemorated throughout the world, especially in Karbala, where millions of pilgrims from all over the globe assemble to pay allegiance to the ideals of faith, truth, freedom, justice, and virtue of the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny. In Iran, Iraq, and in parts of many countries, the day is a public holiday, when mourning processions are taken out on the streets. The recitation of the special ziyarath (salutation) for Imam Husain (AS) on the Day of Arba'een is considered one of the 5 signs of a true believer. The other four signs are recitation in raised voice of the Qur'anic ayah Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem during the ritual prayers; performance of 51 raka'at of ritual prayers in a single day at different times (17 obligatory and 34 recommended); prostration on soil or clay; and wearing of ring in a finger of the right hand.

1260 solar years ago, on this day in 758 AD, Guangzhou in southeastern China saw an expedition mounted by a joint force of Arab and Iranian sailors who took control of this port city, following massacre of thousands of Muslim merchants and their families by the Chinese rebel leader, Huang Chao, during the days of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty. Order was restored on the intervention of the authorities and the Muslims were allowed to carry on trade and build mosques in Guangzhou, where in 2010 China held the 16th Asian Games. According to the ancient Iranian historian, Abu Zaid Hassan of Siraf, Iranians used to call Guangzhou "Khanfu" and Arabs "Sin Kalaan". Many Iranian and Arab Muslims were settled over a thousand years ago in this city which was later called Canton by the Europeans. Today also Guangzhou has a noticeable population of Chinese Muslims. 

1088 lunar years ago, on this day in 352 AH, the Arabic poet, Abu'l-Qassem Ali ibn Ishaq al-Baghdadi, passed away at the age of 42. Incidentally, he was born on this same day of 20th of Safar. Most of his poetry is on the unrivalled merits of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams. He lived for some time at the court of Amir Saif ad-Dowlah Hamdani in Aleppo and has praised this gallant ruler for his love of the Ahl al-Bayt, as well as his exploits against the Byzantines.

748 solar years ago, on this day in 1270 AD, the Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis, mounted by invaders from Europe, ended by an accord between Sultan Mohammad I al-Mustansir of Tunis and Charles I of Sicily (brother of King Louis IX of France, who died months earlier on invading this Muslim land). The Crusader plan was to use this North African Muslim city as a base to attack Palestine, but the plan failed, because of the strength of the Mamluk army of Sultan Baibars of Egypt that had liberated most of the cities of Palestine and Syria from the Crusader occupation. Baibars had already assembled a separate army for aiding Tunis against the Christian invaders, but disbanded it on learning of the retreat of the disease-afflicted Crusaders.

736 solar years ago, on this day in 1282 AD, the famous biographer of Iranian stock, Shams od-Din Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Khallikan passed away in Damascus at the age of 71. He was born in Arbil in northeastern Iraq and studied in Aleppo, Damascus, and Mosul before settling in Cairo, where he served as assistant to the chief judge of Egypt. Later he became the chief judge of Damascus. His most renowned work is the biographical dictionary entitled "Wafayaat al-Ayaan wa-Anba Abna az-Zamaan" (Deaths of Eminent Men and Accounts of the Sons of the Epoch), which took eighteen years to complete. This book does not include biographies of individuals already sufficiently covered, such as the Prophet and the caliphs. It was translated into English by William McGuckin de Slane.

678 solar years ago, on this day in 1340 AD, Portuguese and Spanish Castilian forces halted the Muslims in the Battle of Río Salado, but failed to subjugate the Emirate of Granada. Two months earlier in August, Sultan Abu’l-Hasan Ali, the Marinid ruler of Morocco, who had crossed over to Spain to help Spanish Muslims against Christian marauders from the north, had inflicted a shattering defeat on the Portuguese-Castilian alliance, destroying the Christian fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar, and ensuring that the island of Gibraltar (corruption of the Arabic term “Jabal at-Tareq” or Rock of Tareq, the Muslim conqueror of Spain), remains under the suzerainty of Emir Yusuf of Granada. In 1492 with the fall of Granada, the last Spanish Muslim stronghold, to the Christian aggressors, almost 8 centuries of Muslim rule in Spain that produced scholars and scientists at a time when Europe was immersed in the dark ages, came to its end, because of Muslim disunity and the failure of the two strong Muslim regional Empires of the Mamluks of Egypt-Syria and the Ottomans of Anatolia and southwestern Europe, to respond to the pleas for help of their co-religionists in Spain. 

392 solar years ago, on this day in 1626 AD, Dutch astronomer and mathematician, Willebrord Snellius, who falsely attributed to himself the Iranian Islamic scientist Ibn Sahl’s “Law of Refraction of Light”, died at the age of 46. Named Willebrord Snel van Royen at birth and known in the English-speaking world as Snell; in the West, his name has been attached to the law of refraction of light for several centuries, but it is now known that this law was discovered by Abu Sa’d al-Ala ibn Sahl of Baghdad in 984. Ibn Sahl (940–1000) was a mathematician, physicist and optics engineer of the Islamic Golden Age. His treatise “On Burning Mirrors and Lenses” sets out his understanding of how curved mirrors and lenses bend and focus light. Ibn Sahl is credited with first discovering the law of refraction, which until late was called “Snell’s Law” in the West. Ibn Sahl used the law of refraction to derive lens shapes that focus light with no geometric aberrations, known as anaclastic lenses. Ibn Sahl’s treatise was used by Ibn al-Haitham (965–1039), one of the greatest Islamic scholars of optics who flourished in Iraq during the rule of the Iranian Buwaihid Dynasty and later moved to Fatemid Egypt. In modern times, Egyptian scientist and historian, Roshdi Rashed, discovered Ibn Sahl’s text dispersed in manuscripts in two different libraries, one in Tehran (Iran), and the other in Damascus (Syria). He reassembled the surviving portions, translated and published them.

137 lunar years ago, on this day in 1303 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ja’far Shushtari, passed away. His power of speech, piety, and strong memory was known to all. He was an accomplished jurisprudent and spent all his life, guiding people and carrying out religious duties. He groomed a large number of students and has left behind numerous books, including “Usoul ad-Din” (Fundamentals of Religion).

125 lunar years ago, on this day in 1315 AH, the renowned Bibliophile and Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Shahab od-Din Mar’ashi Najafi, was born in holy Najaf to the Iranian jurisprudent, Seyyed Shams od-Din Mahmoud. He was educated at the famous Najaf Seminary, attending the classes of the Ayatollahs, Mirza Abu’l-Hassan Meshkini, Sheikh Mohammad Hussain Shirazi, Seyyed Habib od-Din Shahrestani and Seyyed Ibrahim Shafei Rafaei Baghdadi. He studied for some years at the seminaries of Samarra and Kazemayn as well. He mastered theology, hadith, jurisprudence, exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, philosophy, ethics, and biography of narrators. After attaining the status of Ijtehad, at the request of Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi, the revivalist of the Qom seminary, he came to this holy city where he lectured and carried out research for six decades until he passed away at the age of 96. For over fifty years he led the daily ritual prayers at the shrine of Hazrat Fatemah al-Ma’sumah in Qom. In his youth in Najaf, he had become growingly concerned with the immense wealth of Islamic knowledge that was being lost in the displacement and destruction of Islamic texts. He took it upon himself to purchase as many rare books and manuscripts that he could on his modest student stipend in order to preserve them. When his stipend was exhausted he took a job at a rice cleaning factory in Najaf, performed Qadha prayers and fasts on behalf of others, and ate only one meal a day in order to raise enough money to purchase these books. He continued to collect these rare manuscripts after migration to Iran, eventually laying the foundation before his death of the Grand Mar’ashi Najafi Library in Qom, which today contains the world’s largest collection of manuscripts of the School of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, among its more than 300,000 books. Earlier in 1965, he had presented 278 rare Arabic and Persian manuscripts to the College of Divinity and Theology of the University of Tehran. He also donated many such books to libraries across Iran, before formal establishment of his library. He was a supporter of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (RA), in the struggles against the Shah’s despotic regime.

108 solar years ago, on this day in 1910 AD, Founder of International Committee of the Red Cross, Henri Dunant, died at the age of 82. He backed efforts to help and save the wounded in wars, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his humanitarian services. Since the Cross represents the crucifix and is a Christian Trinitarian emblem contrary to the belief of Muslims that Prophet Jesus was not crucified, Muslims have adopted the Red Crescent as their symbol. The Red Crescent emblem was first used by ICRC volunteers during the armed conflict between the Ottoman Muslim Empire and the Russian Christian Empire in 1877-1878. The symbol was officially adopted in 1929, and so far 33 Islamic states have recognized it. Today the abbreviation IFRC stands for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

81 solar years ago, on this day in 1937 AD, an asteroid approached the Earth, at about twice the distance of the moon. At the time, it was regarded as the closest approach of anybody other than a meteor. It traversed the night sky at 5 degrees per hour. It was first spotted two nights earlier on 28 Oct by Astronomer Karl Reinmuth of Germany who noticed a streak of light on a picture he had just taken. He named it Hermes. He was able to observe it for only five days before viewing conditions became unfavorable. It was lost until sighted again on 15 Oct 2003 by Britain’s Lowell Observatory astronomer Brian Skiff. Its elliptical orbit took 777 days, cutting across the orbits of Venus, Earth and Mars. It was found to be a binary object by Jean-Luc Margot at the Arecibo Observatory.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, the courageous Iranian boy, Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fahmideh, who had just stepped into his teens, attained martyrdom in the port city of Khorramshahr at the age of 13 during the initial days of the 8-year war imposed on Iran by the US through Saddam. Born in holy Qom, he went to the warfronts to confront the cowardly Ba'thist enemy. In a bid to stop Iraqi columns from advancing, he tied grenades around his waist and fearlessly threw himself into the path of a tank, destroying it and attaining martyrdom in the process. Aban 8 is marked in Iran as Day of Youth and Day of Student Basijis. Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini lauded this young martyr, saying: "Our leader is that 12-year-old child, who attained martyrdom while blowing up an enemy tank."

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, under US pressure, the so-called Middle East Peace Conference was held in Madrid, Spain, between the illegal Zionist entity, and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestine Liberation Organization. At this and subsequent dubious meetings, the usurper Israeli regime emphasized on what it called peace for peace, while the Arab states called for return of land in exchange for peace by urging the withdrawal of Zionists from only the lands occupied in 1967. Israel, with US help managed to drive a wedge among Arab negotiators, and tricked the PLO and Jordan by imposing upon them separate so-called peace treaties, whose clauses it refuses to honour. Such meetings are mere deception and nothing has come out from them, except for more retreat by the Arabs. Syria, sensing the futility of these so-called peace talks withdrew from them when Israel refused to return the Golan Heights. The regime in Jordan signed a scandalous treaty with Israel and has not gained anything concrete in return, except for more humiliation. As has become evident, Israel and its backers are not interested in peace, and as Iran has pointed out the only solution to the chronic question of Palestine is to hold a referendum involving all original inhabitants of this land, including Muslims, Christians and the original Jews, for a single country and government, with the emphasis that all those who migrated from abroad should peacefully return to their lands of origin.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Iranian revolutionary and committed poet, Qaysar Aminpour passed away at the age of 48. Born in the vicinity of the southwestern city of Dezful, he came to Tehran after completion of his primary and high school studies, got his PhD in Persian Language and Literature from Tehran University. As of the early days after the victory of Islamic Revolution, he composed revolutionary poems and helped set up literary and art associations. His works include “Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Poetry” and "Noon of the Tenth Day".

8 lunar years ago, on this day in 1432 AH, Ayatollah Shaykh Mohammad Ali al-Amri, the leading religious scholar of Hijaz and Source of Emulation for many Muslims of Arabia, passed away in his hometown holy Medina, at the ripe old age of 105 years, and was laid to rest in the sacred Jannat-al-Baqi Cemetery. His lineage goes back to the 12^th Infallible Imam’s First and Second Special Deputies, Othman bin Sa’eed al-Amri and Mohammad bin Othman al-Amri, who were descended from the ancient Khazraj tribe of Yathreb or Medina. At the age of 16 he left for Iraq to study at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, which means he was not present in his hometown when it was seized with massive bloodshed and desecration of Islamic sanctities by the Wahhabi brigand of Najd, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, for whom the crafty British created the spurious entity called Saudi Arabia. Some 27 years later after attaining ijtehad in holy Najaf and having studied for a while in the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad in Iran, Shaykh al-Amri returned to his homeland. He involved himself in religious-social activities by building mosques, seminaries and hussainiyyas – the most famous of which is located in the middle of a large farm in Medina, where Islamic rituals are freely observed and which also has a guest house for Shi’a Muslim pilgrims in honour of the Prophet’s elder grandson and 2^nd Infallible Heir, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS). As a result, he was arrested and imprisoned several times by the heretical Wahhabi regime, which also sentenced him to death many times, but he was fortunate to survive. The last time his execution was almost carried out, and in his own words: When I was brought up to the gibbet I quietly made tawassul (or entreaty) to the Prophet’s Immaculate Daughter Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her), and miraculously the rope round my neck snapped and I survived.

AS/SS