Today is Friday; 23rd of the Iranian month of Azar 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and December 14, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1315 lunar years ago, on this day in 125 AH, Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, the 10th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, died after an oppressive rule of 20 years over an empire stretching from Spain and southern France in the west to the borders of China and India in the east. Hisham was the murderer of Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), the 5th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He also brutally martyred the 5th Imam's younger brother, Zaid ibn Ali and had the body mutilated after taking it out from the grave. Hisham was notorious for his misery, despite accumulating a vast treasure that his troops brought as loot from different parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia. He was succeeded by his nephew, Waleed, who refused to give him any shroud or burial, saying Hisham has left no legitimate and lawful income, and whatever he had accumulated was through plunder and seizure. Seven years after him, the Omayyad dynasty was thrown into the dustbin of history with the rise of the equally oppressive Abbasid usurpers.

899 lunar years ago, on this day in 541 AH, Imad od-Din Zangi, the Atabeg of Mosul, Aleppo, Hama and Edessa and founder of the Turkic Zangid dynasty that ruled parts of Syria, was killed by his European slave, Yarankesh, shortly after repulsing a joint Byzantine-Crusader army. His father, Aq Sunqur al-Hajeb, was governor of Aleppo under Malik Shah I, the Isfahan-based Seljuq sultan of Iran- Iraq-Syria-Anatolia. Imad Zangi distinguished himself in military exploits against the European Crusaders, and defeated King Fulk of the usurper Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

731 solar years ago, on this day in 1287 AD, as a result of a storm, the Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapsed, killing an estimated 80,000 people in the sixth largest flood in recorded history. Much of the land was permanently flooded in what are now the Waddenzee and Jsselmeer.

725 solar years ago, on this day in 1293 AD, al-Ashraf al-Khalil, the eighth Mamluk sultan of Egypt-Syria, was assassinated in his mid-thirties after a brief 3-year reign by a group of his Mamluk emirs led by Baydara, while on a hunting trip near Alexandria. Having succeeded his famous father, Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun – originally a Qipchaq slave from Eurasia who rose to become king and liberated Tripoli in Lebanon from Europe’s Crusader occupiers – Ashraf continued the campaign to liberate Acre, Beirut, Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Haifa and Tartus, until he had wiped out all Crusader presence from Levant. He was accorded a magnificent welcome for his victories – first in Damascus and then in Cairo.

624 lunar years ago, on this day in 816 AH, the Iranian scholar and literary figure, Ali ibn Mohammad al-Hussaini al-Jorjani Astarabadi, known popularly as Mir Seyyed Sharif, passed away in Shiraz. He was a prominent figure of the Timurid era and was a student of the renowned scientist of his day, Qotb od-Din Raazi. He authored several books, including “Risalat-al-Kubra fi'l-Manteq” (The Major Treatise in Logic). Among his students were Seyyed Mohammad Nourbakhsh, the founder of the Nourbakhshiya Sufi order, and Shaikh Abi Jamhour al-Ahsa'i of Arabia.

542 solar years ago, on this day in 1476 AD, the murderous Vlad III, known as the "Impaler" for his inhuman killing of Muslims and Christians as well, died at the age of 45. He was the local ruler of Wallachia (Vallahaiya) in Romania, and had once attempted to assassinate the Ottoman Sultan Mohammad II, the Conqueror of Constantinople. Also known as "Dracula" or Son of Dragon, his sadistic cruelties inspired stories of the bloodsucking Vampire. He is said to have impaled nearly 100,000 Turkish Muslims, although despite claiming to be a defender of Christianity, he impaled and burned tens of thousands of Christians as well, during his 19-year reign of terror that ended with his defeat by his consanguineous brother, Radu, who had embraced Islam and was appointed Pasha of Wallachia by the Ottomans. Vlad, who along with Radu had been sent to the Ottoman court while an adolescent, to learn martial arts, the holy Qur'an as well as the Turkish and Persian languages, developed a deep hatred for his brother because of his being favoured by the young prince Mohammad, the future Sultan. In 1447, on the death of his father he was installed as ruler of his homeland by the Ottomans, but instead of showing gratitude, he turned against them and started the brutal killing of Turkish envoys and traders. In 1462, fed up with his savagery, Sultan Mohammad II led a massive army across the River Danube, with Radu at the head of the famous Jan-Nisari Corps. Vlad fled and during his retreat burned and killed everything in sight. When the Ottoman forces approached, they encountered over 20,000 of their soldiers impaled by the forces of Vlad, creating a "forest" of dead or dying bodies on stakes. This atrocious, gut-wrenching sight was too much to bear and Sultan Mohammad turned back in disgust. Four years later Vlad, who fled to Hungary, was imprisoned for ten years by the local Christian ruler for crimes against humanity. On release in 1476, when he attempted to stir up sedition once again, he was killed by the Ottomans.

515 solar years ago, on this day in 1503 AD, French apothecary, astrologer and supposed seer, Michel de Nostredame, known by his Latin name "Nostradamus" was born in Provence. He published collections of so-called prophecies that have since become famous. The first edition appeared in his lifetime in 1555. He has since attracted a following that credits him with predicting many major world events. Academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus' quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power. Nevertheless, many have used a process of free interpretation and determined 'twisting' of his words to predict an apparently imminent event. For example, in 1867, three years before it happened, Le Pelletier did so to anticipate either the triumph or the defeat of Napoleon III in a war that, in the event, begged to be identified as the Franco-Prussian war, while admitting that he could not specify either which or when. There have also been several well-known Internet hoaxes, where quatrains in the style of Nostradamus have been circulated by e-mail as the real thing. The best-known examples concern the collapse of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 that led to hoaxes and to reinterpretations by enthusiasts of several quatrains as supposed prophecies. With the advent of 2012 Nostradamus's alleged prophecies started to be co-opted as evidence suggesting that the end of the world is imminent, notwithstanding the fact that his book never mentions the end of the world, let alone the year 2012. He died in 1566.

472 solar years ago, on this day in 1546 AD, Danish astronomer and mathematician, Tycho Brahe, was born in Scania, which was then under Denmark, but is now part of Sweden. He studied for a while in Germany, and later was helped by the Danish ruler to set up an observatory on Hven Island. Influenced by the discoveries of Muslim scientists, centuries earlier, he embarked on wide scale observations of the skies and discovered a supernova. He died in 1601.

219 solar years ago, on this day in 1799 AD, American military leader and the first president of the United States of America, George Washington, died at the age of 67. He started as an expert land surveyor in the British colonial army and fought against the French during the North American Wars. On outbreak of the rebellion in the 13 New England colonies, he sided with the rebels, assumed the overall military command and led them to victory in the war, after which he was elected as president. The US capital, Washington, was built in his honour on River Potomac.

213 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, the British Blacksmith, George Branklon, discovered coal’s thermal power, while accidentally burning what was regarded as mere construction material. The first coal mine became operational in the port city of Plymouth.

115 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, the renowned Iranian physician and researcher, Dr. Mahmoud Najmabadi, was born. In addition to his medical practice, he was a university lecturer, keenly interested in Islamic-Iranian medicine. He wrote several books to introduce the well-known physicians of Iran and the Islamic World, such as Mohammad ibn Zakariya Razi, and translated some of their books. He published 45 books and journals, including “A Glance at Islamic Medicine”; “History of Medicine in Iran”; and “Mohammad Zakariya Razi: Iranian Physician, Chemist and Philosopher.”

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1904 AD, several ulema and freedom-seekers of Tehran decided to leave the Iranian capital en masse in protest to the injustices of the Qajarid king, Mohammad Ali Shah. Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah Bahbahani, and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabai, the pioneers of Iran’s Constitutional Movement, migrated to the holy city of Qom, along with several of their followers. The condition set for their return was implementation of Islamic rules and regulations across Iran and establishment of the Ministry of Justice.

113 lunar years ago, on this day in 1327 AH, the 6th Qajarid king of Iran, Mohammad Ali Shah, was forced by the constitutionalists to revive the Majlis (parliament), which he had dissolved two years earlier, shortly after succeeding his father, Mozaffar od-Din Shah, to the Peacock Throne. A repressive and inefficient ruler, he had earlier bombarded the parliament building with the help of the British and Russian forces. He was soon deposed by the constitutionalists, and on being replaced by his 11-year old son, Ahmad Shah, he fled to Russian-ruled Odessa (present day Ukraine), from where he plotted his return to power. Two years later he landed at Astarabad on the Caspian Sea coast of northern Iran, but his forces were defeated. Mohammad Ali Shah again fled to Russia, then to Istanbul and later to San Remo, Italy, where he died on 5th April 1925, the same year the 140-year rule of the Qajarid Dynasty ended when the British formally declared their agent, Reza Khan Pahlavi as the new king, while Ahmad Shah was on an extended, almost 2-year long visit, to Europe. Every shah of Iran since Mohammad Ali Shah has died in exile.

107 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, Antarctica was discovered as several explorers raced each other to set foot on this frozen continent. Norwegian Captain Roald Amundsen beat his closest rival, Britain's Captain Robert Falcon Scott, in hoisting the flag on the South Pole.

86 solar years ago, on this day in 1932 AD, the Source of Emulation, Ayatollah Shaikh Abdullah Mamaqani, passed away at the age of 59. Born in holy Najaf to the great scholar Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Mamaqani, who personally groomed him, he in turn groomed many scholars and wrote several books, including the 3-volume “Tanqih al-Maqal fi Ilm ar-Rijal”, “Miqyas al-Hidaya fi Ilm ad-Daraya”, and “al-Fawa’ed at-Tibbiyya”. His famous Will to his sons has been translated into several languages, including English. It contains important points on the Five Fundamentals of Faith (Usoul Din), as well as the benefits of “Ziyarah” to the shrines of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, and the importance of “Azadari” or mourning ceremonies for the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS).

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Syria's Zionist occupied region of Golan Heights was illegally declared part of Israel. Occupied in the 1967 war, the annexation statement led to wide scale protests worldwide. Syria has vowed to retake its territories and refused to enter into any deceptive talks with the Zionist entity.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, the Bosnian peace agreement, called the Dayton Accord, was ratified at the Paris meeting, following its signing on November 21 in Dayton, US, by the Bosnian, Serb, and Croat presidents. The only outcome of the Dayton Accord for Muslims was that it spelled an end to the barbaric bouts of massacre by the Serbs, which had claimed 250,000 lives till that date. Despite the relative majority of Muslims, the Republic was divided into two parts, namely the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic, with both of them under the supervision of a weak central government in the capital, Sarajevo. Meanwhile, despite the passage of years since the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims, issues related to the return of 1.2 million Muslim refugees to their homes and hearths have remained unsolved.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar az-Zaidi, threw his shoes at the then US President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, becoming a hero in the eyes of the oppressed people of the world. Born in Sadr City, Baghdad, in a family adhering to the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), he was resentful of the US occupation of his country and the killing of the Iraqi Muslim people. While throwing his first shoe at George Bush, who was flanked by Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maleki, he shouted: "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog". As Bush ducked to avoid being hit in the face, az-Zaidi threw his other shoe at him, shouting: "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq." Again, a badly shaken Bush barely evaded a direct hit on the face. The heroic Iraqi journalist was immediately pulled to the ground, as security guards kicked, beat and dragged him outside the conference hall, with blood dripping from his body. He was jailed, tortured, interrogated, put on trial, defended his action as the natural response to the killing of over a million Iraqis by the American occupiers, and sentenced to a year in prison. Nine months later, he was released for good conduct, and worked for a Lebanese TV channel.

AS/SS