Today is Monday; 3rd of the Iranian month of Dey 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 16th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and December 24, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

Over three lunar millennia ago, on this day, the Thamoud tribe of the al-Hijr region in the fertile northwestern part of Arabia, was afflicted with divine wrath for the abominable sins of its members, after having been given a lengthy respite to repent and reform, which the sinners spurned and instead committed the cardinal  crime of killing the she-camel that had miraculously emerged from a splitting rock in answer to the supplication of Prophet Saleh to Almighty God when the Godless stuck to their demand for a supernatural miracle. The place is believed to be “Mada’en Saleh” between Medina and the Levant, in the Hejaz. Only a few people especially the poor believed in the monotheistic message of Prophet Saleh, while the majority, particularly the rulers, laughed at him and refused to heed his words of guidance. The special camel would give abundant milk every day for the poor to drink, and they were very happy. The sinners became angry and brutally killed the camel. They then threatened Prophet Saleh with death, but before they could carry out their murderous plot, divine wrath struck them, as black clouds gathered in the sky, covering the moon and the stars. Valleys and mountains were as dark as night. At midnight strong thunderbolts struck, while an earthquake occurred to obliterate the sinners, while Prophet Saleh and the believers had already left for a safe place.

1075 lunar years ago, on this day in 365 AH, the 4th self-styled caliph of the Fatemid dynasty of North Africa-Sicily, al-Mo‘ez le Din-Allah, died in his new capital Cairo (Qahera in Arabic), after a reign of 23 years during which the centre of his caliphate was moved from Mansuriyya in Tunisia to the newly conquered Egypt. The Fatemids, who claimed descent from Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), the 6th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), but did not adhere to the teachings of the last six of the Prophet’s 12 Infallible Successors, had thrown off the yoke of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. Their Shi’ite Muslim Sicilian general, Jowhar as-Saqali, conquered Egypt from the Abbasids and on the orders of Caliph Mo’ez founded the city of “Qahera” (Victorious) to commemorate the victory. Mo’ez soon founded the famous mosque and academy known as al-Azhar in honour of “Zahra” (Radiant), which is an epithet of the Prophet’s daughter, Hazrat Fatema (SA). For the first time in Egypt the “Azaan” was recited in the Shi’ite Muslim manner with proclamation of the name of the Prophet’s First Infallible Successor, Imam Ali (AS), after testifying the Oneness of God Almighty and the Mission of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). For over two centuries, al-Azhar was the site of Ismaili Shi’ite learning until the fall of Egypt to the Kurdish general, Salah od-Din Ayyubi, who forcibly converted the country and its people to the Sunni sect.

975 lunar years ago, on this day in 465 AH, the Iranian mystic Abdul-Karim ibn Hawazin al-Qushayri, died in his hometown Naishapur in Khorasan, northeastern Iran. Known as “Sheikh al-Islam”, following the death of his teacher and father-in-law, Abu Ali ad-Daqqaq, he became the master and teacher of the mystical order called al-Qushayriyya. He was an authority on theology, philosophy, hadith, and exegesis of the Holy Qur’an. He has left behind a large number of books, including the treatise tilted “Risalat al-Qushayriyya” on Islamic mysticism.

874 solar years ago, on this day in 1144 AD, the capital of the County of Edessa was captured by Imad od-Din Zangi, the Atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo, thus ending the first illegal state set up in what is now southern Turkey by Europe’s Crusader invaders of the Muslim lands.

785 lunar years ago, on this day in 655 AH, Shajarat ad-Durr, the widow of the Ayyubid ruler, Sultan as-Saleh, died in Egypt. She played a crucial role after the death of her husband in repelling the Seventh Crusade launched against Egypt by Europeans. She was of Turkic slave origin, and her becoming Sultana (Queen), marks the end of the rule of the Kurdish Ayyubid Dynasty over Egypt and the start of the era of the Mamluks that lasted for two-and-a-half centuries.

494 solar years ago, on this day in 1524 AD, Portuguese sailor and explorer, Vasco da Gama, died at the age of 64. He is credited with the discovery of Europe’s sea route to Asia and India in the year 1498 by rounding the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa with the help of Muslim navigators, whom he subsequently killed. He reached India and mass murdered the residents of coastal areas, both Hindus and Muslims. He seized Goa from the Adel Shahi dynasty of Iranian origin and forcibly Christianized the people. At one time, he sadistically burned alive 380 men, women and children.

450 solar years ago, on this day in 1568 AD, the three-year Morisco Uprising started in the former Muslim Emirate of Gharnata (Granada) and spread to other parts of southern Spain, because of the harsh suppression of Muslim culture and Arabic language by King Philip II. 'Morisco' was a derogatory term used for Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity in 1502 after the end of Muslim rule in Spain in 1492, but who practiced their faith in their private life. In 1566, Philip made it compulsory for Moriscos to learn the Castilian dialect of Spanish within three years, after which no-one would be allowed to use Arabic. Islamic names were not to be used and Muslim garments were forbidden. And in 1567 the king issued a decree ending all toleration of Islamic-Arabic culture in a country that had seen seven centuries of glorious Muslim rule at a time when Christian Europe was immersed in the dark age of ignorance. He banned the Arabic and Berber languages, forced Moriscos to adopt Christian names, ordered the destruction of all books and documents in the Arabic script, and decreed that Morisco children would be educated only by Catholic priests. Known as the War of Las Alpujarras, the uprising attracted people from various parts, including many Muslims who had fled their villages under Christian rule and lived in the remote mountains. They proclaimed Aben Humeya (Ibn Omayya) as their king, and appealed for help to the Ottoman Sultan Selim II the Drunkard. Despite claiming to be caliph and having a powerful fleet that controlled the Mediterranean Sea, he refused the pleas for help of the Spanish Muslims, as a result of which, the 3-year uprising was ruthlessly crushed by a joint Christian army of Spain, Austria, and Italy. In its aftermath hundreds of thousands of Spanish Muslims were forcibly Christianized and all books and documents in Arabic burned. It is worth noting that a century earlier in 1485, when the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria were all set to dispatch an army to help the Emirate of Granada repel the Christian aggression, Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II halted his European campaigns and turned eastwards to attack fellow Muslims in Anatolia and Syria, thereby starting the disastrous Ottoman-Mamluk Wars that continued for over three decades, while Spanish Muslims were being exterminated.

380 solar years ago, on this day in 1638 AD, the Ottomans under Murad IV re-occupied Baghdad from Safavid Iran after a 40-day siege, during which they incurred heavy losses including the death of Grand Vizier Mohammad Tayyar on the final day. Baghdad (God’s Gift in Old Persian), built near the ancient Parthian-Sassanid capital of Mada’en (Ctesiphon) by Mansour Dawaniqi of the Abbasid regime that had risen to power with the help of Iranians, was designed by Zoroastrian Naubakht Ahvazi, and mostly peopled by Iranians who became Arabicised in the course of history. For long centuries, Baghdad was part of successive Iran-based empires such as the Buwaihids, the Seljuqs, the Ilkhanids, the Qara Qoyunlus and the Safavids. It was occupied in 1534 by Sultan Suleyman I without any serious combat, when Shah Tahmasp ordered withdrawal of Iranian forces. In 1604, Shah Abbas I liberated Baghdad and most of Iraq from Ottoman occupation. The reoccupation of Baghdad and Iraq by the Turks resulted in the Treaty of Zuhab. In 1735, Baghdad was again liberated by Iranians under Nader Shah Afshar, but after his death in 1747 the Ottomans once more occupied it.

281 solar years ago, on this day in 1737 AD, the decisive Battle of Bhopal between the Maratha aggressors and Nizam ul-Mulk Asaf Jaf I of Haiderabad-Deccan, who was supported by the Hindu Rajput warriors, ended in a stalemate, thereby ending the ambitions of both parties to become the paramount power in the Subcontinent during the decline of the once powerful Moghal Empire. The Maratha marauders led by Baji Rao, had earlier raided Delhi and extracted huge sum of money from the Moghal Emperor Mohammad Shah, who now appealed to Nizam ul-Mulk to come to his help. The latter left the Deccan and reached Delhi, but finding the situation in the faction-riddled capital precarious decided to check the Maratha advance by assembling a combined Muslim-Hindu army. He was, however, outclassed from taking Gujarat which fell to the Marathas, emboldening them to march towards the north. At Bhopal in central India, Nizam ul-Mulk consolidated his forces and the fierce encounter on this day during which the Maratha rebels managed to besiege his army in the strong fortress of Bhopal, averted a defeat, ultimately forcing Baji Rao to sign a peace treaty with Nizam ul-Mulk’s representative Raja Jai Singh at a village Doraha near Bhopal on 6^th January 1738. Nizam ul-Mulk decided to concentrate on the Deccan to nullify the menace of the Marathas, whose renewed bid to be masters of India after his death in 1748, was completely smashed at the 3^rd Battle of Panipat in 1761 by the Afghan ruler, Ahmad Shah Abadali.   

257 solar years ago, on this day in 1761 AD, Selim III, the 29th sultan and 20th self-styled Ottoman caliph, was born in Istanbul to Sultan Mustafa III and his Georgian concubine. He spoke Turkish, Arabic and Persian fluently, and was fond of literature and calligraphy; many of his works were put on the walls of mosques. He wrote poems, especially about Crimea's occupation by Russia. He ascended the throne in 1789 on the death of his uncle, Abdul-Hamid I – who had succeeded his father – and embarked on plans to modernize the Ottoman Empire, including the army in view of the disastrous wars with Austria and Russia. The Sultan's most ambitious military project was the creation of an entirely new infantry corps fully trained and equipped according to the latest European standards. This unit, called the ‘Nizam-e Jedid’ (the new order) was opposed by the Janissari Corps, who rose once more in revolt, induced the Sheikh ul-Islam to issue a fatwa against the reforms, dethroned and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne on 29 May 1807. A year and 2 months later he was killed by Alamdar Pasha on the order of his successor. Selim carried on personal correspondence with Louis XVI, and was distressed by the setting up of the republic in France. On July 1, 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte’s French forces landed in Egypt, he declared war on France. In alliance with Russia and Britain, the Turks were in periodic conflict with the French on both land and sea until March 1801. Selim’s assistance was sought by Fath Ali Khan Tipu Sultan of the Muslim Sultanate of Mysore in the Deccan (southern India) during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. The British appealed to Selim to tell Tipu Sultan to halt his state of war against the colonialists, prompting the Ottoman Sultan to write a letter to Tipu Sultan criticizing the French, and offering to act as intermediary between him and the British. Tipu Sultan wrote twice to Selim III, rejecting the Ottoman advice, and began to consolidate his relations with France, as result of which Napoleon invaded Ottoman Egypt in 1798, causing a furor in Constantinople. Immediately, the British unilaterally broke the truce and launched the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War to defeat and kill Tipu Sultan during the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799.

204 solar years ago, on this day in 1814 AD, the Treaty of Ghent between the United States and Britain, terminating the Anglo-American War of 1812-14, was signed at Ghent, Belgium. The news did not reach the US until two weeks later (after the decisive American victory at New Orleans). The treaty, signed by John Quincy Adams for the US, and also committed the US and Britain "to use their best endeavours" to end the Atlantic slave trade.

169 solar years ago, on this day in 1849 AD, French troops invaded Guinea in West Africa and gradually occupied it through setting up the Gold Coast Commercial Company. In the 1890s, Guinea was declared a French colony. Following a referendum in 1958 it gained independence the same year. Over 85 percent of the people of Guinea are Muslims, and the capital is Conakry. Guinea shares borders with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

155 solar years ago, on this day in 1863 AD, English novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, died in London at the age of 52. Born in Calcutta, India, he is famous for his satirical works, particularly “Vanity Fair”, a panoramic portrait of English society.

153 solar years ago, on this day in 1865 AD, the white supremacist outfit, Ku Klux Klan, was established by Anglo-Saxon racists in the US to confront other ethnicities, especially the black people, whose ancestors were kidnapped off the coasts of Africa and forced into slavery in the US. Although, four years after its establishment, Ku Klux Klan was declared illegal by the government, it continues to kill and persecute black people and has stirred fear among them. This outfit even assassinates whites, who support the rights of other races. Successive regimes in the White House only resort to cosmetic measures, and have generally turned a blind eye to such homespun racial terrorism.

67 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, the UN, which had taken over administration of Italian colonial possessions after World War 2, formally granted independence to Libya, endorsing Mohammad Idris al-Mahdi as-Senussi as the king. This mostly Berber-inhabited Arabicised North African land, which in ancient times was part of the Carthaginian Empire before its occupation by the Romans, was liberated by Muslims in 644. After the weakening of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad, their Aghlabid governors were ousted by the emerging Fatemid Ismaili Shi'a Muslim Dynasty by 909. Over two-and-a-half centuries later its coastal areas were seized by the Christians of Sicily, from whose control the Ayyubids of Egypt soon wrested it. The Muslim Hafsids then ruled this land, and when Spain, after expelling the Muslims from Andalusia tried to seize the coastal areas, it was confronted by the growing power of the Ottoman Turks, who in 1551 established their formal control over what was then known as the Vilayat of Tripolitania and the Vilayat of Cyrenaica. Over three-and-a-half centuries later when the Ottomans became weakened, Fascist Italy seized control of this land in 1911, and named it Libya for the first time. Italian occupation was strongly resisted by the Libyans under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar, who was eventually defeated and executed by the occupiers. With the defeat of Italy in World War II, Britain and France occupied this country. In 1969, a young officer, named Colonel Mu’ammar Qadhafi, staged a coup, and toppled the monarchic system. It is believed the CIA was behind the rise to power of Qadhafi who for 42 years ruled the country in the most eccentric manner by lavishly spending its oil wealth but keeping the people in poverty. In February 2011, the people rose against Qadhafi’s despotic rule, and since the dictator was no longer of any use to the West; the US and NATO intervened to topple and finally kill him. Libya with a vast coastline on the Mediterranean Sea covers an area of 1,760,000 sq km, and shares borders with Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Chad, and Niger.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, during the US imposed war on Vietnam, Viet Cong operatives bombed the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, South Vietnam, to demonstrate they can strike an American installation in the heavily guarded capital. The Vietnam War was a disastrous debacle for the US.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, terrorist bomb blasts in Iraq martyred at least 26 people across the country, most of them Shi’a Muslim pilgrims on their way to the holy shrine of the Chief of Martyrs, Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala for the annual Arba’een (40^th Day) commemoration. Twin explosions targeting Shi’a Muslim pilgrims in Hillah martyred at least 13 people and injured 74 others. In Baghdad a bomb targeting a funeral martyred nine and wounded 33 in Sadr City. In a southern Baghdad neighborhood, a bomb killed four Shi’a Muslim pilgrims and wounded 10 others on their way to Karbala.

AS/SS