Today is Monday; 10th of the Iranian month of Dey 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 23rd of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and December 31, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1323 solar years ago, on this day in 695 AD, Mohammad bin Qasim, the Arab governor of Iran, Multan and Sindh, on behalf of his tyrannical uncle, Hajjaj – original name Kulayb (whelp) – was born in obscurity. Among the reasons for his ruthless campaign to seize Sindh and try to push into India, was the refuge offered by the local rulers to Iranian and Arab Muslims, including followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, fleeing the reign of terror of Hajjaj – the desecrator of the holy Ka’ba – on whose death, 50,000 men and women were found in dungeons. On Hajjaj’s death his 20-year old nephew was summoned to Damascus from Sindh, imprisoned, tortured and executed on the orders of the new Omayyad caliph, Sulaiman bin Abdul-Malik, who was a bitter enemy of the bloodthirsty family.

1151 lunar years ago, on this day in 289 AH, Mu’tazid-Billah, the 16th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime died at the age of 46 after a 10-year reign, during which he reversed the anti-Islamic policies of his uncle and predecessor, Mu’tamed, the murderer of Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), the 11th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Son of the regent Muwaffaq, he showed respect for the Prophet’s progeny and ordered the public cursing of the Omayyad caliphs (especially Mu’awiyya ibn Abu Sufyan and Yazid), and the disclosure of their anti-Islamic acts and misdeeds, from pulpits during the Friday Prayers. He also suppressed the Kharijites (renegades) for their acts of terrorism against Muslims, and was very harsh with them and other rebels; while sending presents and large sums of money to the semi-independent Alawid ruler of Tabaristan on the Caspian Sea coast of Iran because of his being a venerable descendent of the Prophet. The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), in his prophecies had foretold about Mu’tazid.

1019 lunar years ago, on this day in 421 AH, following the death of Mahmoud Ghaznavi, the Turkic Sultan who had created an extensive empire encompassing the eastern half of Iran, most of Central Asia, and the northwestern parts of the Subcontinent; power dispute flared up among his twin sons, Mohammad and Mas’oud. Mohammad ascended the throne as per the will of his father, but when he refused his brother’s request for three of the provinces Mas’oud had won by his sword, civil war erupted. Mas’oud seized power, blinded Mohammad and imprisoned him, but was unable to preserve the empire following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandanaqan by the Seljuq Turks who seized Central Asia and Iran. His last act was to collect treasures from all his forts in the hope of assembling an army to rule from India but his own forces plundered the wealth, forcing him to proclaim his blind brother as king again after ten years. The position of the two brothers was reversed; Mohammad from a prison was raised to the throne and Mas’oud from a throne was consigned to a dungeon where he was assassinated. Soon his son, Mawdoud, rebelled against his blind uncle defeated his sons at the Battle of Nangarhar, and seized the throne of Ghazna.

793 solar years ago, on this day in 1225 AD, the Lý dynasty of Vietnam ended after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Trần Thái Tông, husband of the last Lý monarch, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, starting the Trần dynasty.

789 solar years ago, on this day in 1229 AD, the Spanish Muslim emirate of Majorca on the largest Mediterranean island of the same name in the Balearic Archipelago, was invaded and occupied by James I of Aragon, who changed the name of the capital from “Medina Mayurqa” to Palma, thus ending over five glorious centuries of Islamic culture and civilization. The first Muslims arrived on this island in 707, some four years before Spain was liberated by the Muslims. In 902, Issam al-Khawlani, in order to save the local people from the frequent raids of Vikings and other Christian marauders, liberated the whole Balearic Archipelago, ushering in a new period of prosperity under the Emirate of Cordoba. Agriculture and irrigation networks were developed and local industries set up by the Muslims. From 1087 to 1114 Majorca was ruled by the Taifa of Denia independently, and was able to ward off raids by Christian hordes from Europe including the Crusader marauders sailing towards Syria and Palestine to stir up sedition. It then came under the rule of the al-Morawwid Muslim dynasty of North Africa, and in 1176 was taken over by the al-Muwahhed dynasty until 1229, when the last emir of Majorca, Abu Yahya, was defeated by the Christian invaders, who forcibly Christianized the inhabitants after killing many of them. Minorca, (Manurqa in Arabic),  the other important island of the Balearic Archipelago, continued to be under Muslim control for another six decades, until it was also brutally invaded and occupied by the Christians of Aragon, who killed, Christianized and enslaved the Muslims.

526 solar years ago, on this day in 1492 AD, over a 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily by the Christian rulers because of their charging of high interest rates, usury, and above all the insulting of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, such as the slandering of Prophet Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary (peace upon them).

504 solar years ago, on this day in 1514 AD, the Belgian physician and surgeon, Andreas Vesalius, was born in Brussels. He gained fame mainly for his efforts to identify the functions of different body limbs through autopsy. For this reason, he has been named as the father of science of anatomy. He died in 1564.

386 solar years ago, on this day in 1632 AD, the Safavid Emperor of Iran, Shah Abbas II, was born. He became king on 15 May 1642 on the death of his father Shah Safi. His rule was relatively peaceful and was free of any Ottoman attack. In 1648 he managed to retake Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan, and hold it against attacks by Moghal India. The early death of this capable ruler in 1666 at the age of 34 years was a great blow to Iran.

327 solar years ago, on this day in 1691 AD, the Irish physicist and chemist, Robert Boyle, passed away at the age of 64. He studied under his father, Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, who was a famous English physicist, and soon honed his skills in physics. He is best known for Boyle's Law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system.

195 lunar years ago, on this day in 1245 AH, the Iranian religious scholar and poet, Allamah Ahmad Naraqi, passed away at the age of 60 in Kashan and his body was taken holy Najaf in Iraq for burial besides his father, the famous Mullah Mahdi Naraqi, in the sacred mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). He studied under his father in the city of Kashan, before leaving for Iraq for higher studies at the seminary of holy Najaf where he reached the status of Ijtehad. His teachers included Seyyed Mahdi Bahr al-Uloum and Sheikh Ja’far Kashef al-Gheta. Among his students mention could be made of Ayatollah Sheikh Murtaza Ansari Dezfuli, Aqa Mohammad Baqer Hezar Jaribi, and his own brother, Mahdi, known as Aqa Buzurg Naraqi. On his father’s death in Najaf, he returned to Iran and took over administrative affairs of the Kashan Seminary. He was an authority on jurisprudence, hadith, theology, Ilm-ar-Rijal or analytical biography of scholars and narrators, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, Arabic literature and poetry, as well as Persian literature and poetry. He was fluent in Arabic, Hebrew and Latin and his knowledge about different sciences is evident in his various books. One of his books titled “Sayf al-Ummah wa Burhan al-Millah”, which was written to answer questions raised by British pastor Henry Martin shows his knowledge of Christianity and his mastery in answering deviated thoughts. Among his other works mention could be made of “Me’raj as-Sa’adah”, and “al-Asrar al-Hajj”.  He lived during the weak rule of Fath Ali Shah Qajar, when the Russians occupied large parts of Iran’s Caucasus and treated the local Muslims in the worst possible way. Mullah Ahmad Naraqi, along with other aware and politically conscious ulema helped influence the declaration of war by Iran against Russian forces and eventually at the end of Muharram 1242 AH (corresponding to 1826 AD), some of the areas occupied by Russia as per the dubious Gulistan Treaty, were liberated by Iran.

161 solar years ago, on this day in 1857 AD, Queen Victoria of Britain chose Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.

157 solar years ago, on this day in 1861 AD, 22,990 millimeters of rain fell in Cherrapunji, Assam in northeast India – a world record.

143 solar years ago, on this day in 1875 AD, the Danish orientalist, Arthur Christensen, was born in Copenhagen. During his years of study, he became interested in countries of the Orient, especially the history of Iran and conducted research on the history of Persian literature. He wrote his dissertation on the quatrains of the famous Iranian Islamic astronomer-mathematician, Omar Khayyam. He also wrote articles on Ferdowsi and other poets. Among his important books is the administration and social structure of Iran in the Sassanid era. He died in 1945.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, the combatant Iranian religious leader, Mirza Ali Aqa Siqqat-ol-Islam Tabrizi, was martyred by the invading Russian forces. He played an important role in Tabriz, as an activist of the Constitutional Revolution. He resolutely struggled against the occupation of parts of northwestern Iran in the Caucasus by Czarist Russia, while guiding and leading people to this end. The Russians, who considered him an opponent, kidnapped and martyred him.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, over 200 citizens were martyred and more than 2,000 injured in the holy city of Mashhad when a peaceful public rally was attacked with tanks and machineguns by the forces of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime. On this same day in the city of Kerman in southeastern Iran, the regime’s forces martyred over a hundred citizens and injured some 400 others in trying to disperse a peaceful public protest. Simultaneously, public demonstrations erupted today throughout the country against the British-installed and US-backed Shah who declared martial law in most parts of the country. Massive rallies were held in the holy city of Qom, as well as in Shiraz, Ardabil, Hamedan, Gorgan, Malayer, Khorramabad, Boroujerd, Lar and other cities, while in the capital there was pitched street fighting between the regime’s forces and the public, demanding end of monarchy and return home from exile of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA).

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, amid the peak of religious-nationalist sentiments in the Soviet Union, the people of the Caucasus Republic of Azerbaijan staged an uprising for rejoining Iran. This region was an integral part of Iran since 500 BC until the Russians occupied it in the first half of the 19th century, along with other Iranian regions in the Caucasus, such as Daghestan, Chechen, Armenia, and the eastern parts of Georgia. The Azeri people, residing north of the Aras River continued to maintain their bonds with Iran’s history and culture. When the Red Army moved to suppress the uprising, many Azeri Muslims swam across the Aras River in freezing temperatures to come to the safety of Iran.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved in what was dubbed by the media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. For almost two centuries a battleground between the Hapsburgs and the Ottoman Turks, who ruled Slovakia, in October 1918 after World War 1, Czechoslovakia was created from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 1939 to 1945, it was incorporated into Nazi Germany and seized to exist de facto. Revived after World War 2, it came under Moscow’s influence and existed as a Soviet satellite state until the end of communist rule in 1989.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, Saddam of the tyrannical Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, ordered a fresh summary execution of several thousand political detainees that lasted several weeks. During his 24-year rule as president which ended with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the heartless Saddam massacred several million Iraqis, mostly members of the country’s Shi’ite Arab majority. 

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, resigned and was succeeded by Vladimir Putin. Earlier in the decade, Yeltsin had replaced President Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, which disintegrated in June 1991, resulting in the emergence of the Russian Federation. Yeltsin was deceived by the empty promises of the West, especially the US, which did not rescue Russia from the economic crisis. He also suffered a disastrous military defeat when his forces attacked the autonomous Chechen Muslim Republic, which was finally reoccupied by Moscow in 1994.  

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, Iranian scientists successfully tested the first nuclear fuel rod produced from uranium ore deposits inside the country for use in the Islamic Republic’s wholly peaceful nuclear programme.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime of the Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain, mercilessly martyred 15-year old Seyyed Hashem Sa’eed by firing at his chest, at close range, a tear gas canister. The birthrights of the vast majority of people of Bahrain are being denied by the Aal-e Khalifa regime, with the support of the US and Saudi Arabia, whose occupation forces periodically desecrate religious places.

AS/SS