Today is Sunday; 23rd of the Iranian month of Dey 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1440 lunar hijri; and January 13, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1487 solar years ago, on this day in 532 AD, the 2^nd Hagia Sophia cathedral was burned down in Constantinople during the Nika Uprising, which failed leaving some 30,000-to-40,000 people dead. Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora had attended festivities at the Hippodrome, a stadium for athletic competition. Team support escalated from insults to mob riots and in the end Constantinople lay in ruins. Justinian proceeded to rebuild the city with extensive commissions for religious art and architecture, including the new Hagia Sophia.

1432 lunar years ago, on this day in 8 AH, Ja’far ibn Abu Taleb, the cousin of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred in the Battle of Mutah in what is now Jordan, against the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, led by Theodore and made up of Arab tribes including pagans and Christians. The expedition was occasioned by the treacherous killing of the Prophet’s emissary to the governor of Bosra ash-Shaam in Syria, Hareth bin Umair, by Sharjil bin Amr Ghassani, the local Arab tribal leader. The Prophet was distressed and on God’s commandment mobilized an army under command of Ja’far, the elder brother of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS). When the battle ensued, Ja’far, who had recently returned to Arabia from long years of exile in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia), mounted a red horse, raised the banner of Islam, and fought till his wounds forced him to dismount. Having hamstrung his horse, he fought on foot, receiving some fifty wounds, mostly in the face, till he achieved martyrdom after losing both of his hands. Zayd bin Haretha then took command and fought bravely till he also achieved martyrdom. Abdullah bin Rawaha now took charge and achieved martyrdom as well. At this crucial juncture, when the Muslims, though outnumbered by the Byzantines, were holding their ground, Khaled bin Waleed, who had recently claimed to have accepted Islam after two decades of openly bitter opposition to the Prophet, seized the banner and instead of confronting the Byzantines, ordered retreat, all the way back to Medina. When this defeated force reached Medina, the Prophet was dismayed at Khaled’s cowardice. The retreating Muslims found the doors of their houses shut in their faces by their families, who jeered at them, saying: What prevented you from being martyred like Ja’far and the others. It is interesting to note that while the battle was in progress in faraway Mutah, God enabled the Prophet to see what was transpiring on the battlefield. The Prophet then went to the house of Ja’far, seated his elder son Abdullah on his lap and stroked his head. The mother, Asma bint Umais, observed the Prophet’s manner and wept bitterly since she understood her children were now orphans. The Prophet, with tears in his eyes, declared that Ja’far who like the rest of the monotheist Hashemite Clan had since childhood neither bowed before idols nor indulged in any sin, was granted two wings with which to fly wherever he pleases among the angels of Paradise. That is the reason he became famous as Ja’far at-Tayyar, or Ja’far the Flyer.

1104 solar years ago, on this day in 915 AD, Hakam II, the 2^nd self-styled Omayyad caliph of al-Andalus or Muslim Spain, was born in Cordoba to Abdur-Rahman III and his concubine Murjan. He succeeded his father in 961 AD, and during his 15-year reign, he established Muslim supremacy over the Christian states of Navarre, Castile and León. Although he beat back the Norman attacks, his ambitions across the Strait of Gibraltar were shattered by the defeat inflicted upon his forces by the emerging Fatemid Ismaili Shi’a Muslim dynasty of North Africa. Hakam, however, utilized the peace in Spain to develop agriculture, irrigation works, urban development, and scholarly pursuits to the extent that books were procured from Damascus, Baghdad, Basra, Constantinople, Cairo, Mecca, Medina, Rayy, and Bukhara. His status as a patron of knowledge brought him fame across the Muslim world to the point that even books written in Iran, which was under Abbasid control, were dedicated to him. He undertook a massive translation effort and many books were translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic. He formed a joint committee of Muladi Muslims and Mozarab Catholics for this task. His personal library was of enormous proportions. Of special importance to him was history, and he himself wrote a history of Islamic Spain. The mathematician Lubna of Córdoba was employed as his private secretary and the famous physician, surgeon and scientist, Abu’l-Qasim az-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) flourished at his court. His building works included an expansion of the main mosque of Córdoba (962–966), the Mezquita, and the completion of the royal residence Medinat-az-Zahara (976), which his father had begun in 936. Hakam II died in 976 at the age of 61 and was succeeded by his son Hisham II – son of his Basque concubine.

1026 lunar years ago, on this day in 414 AH, the Iranian-Islamic mathematician and astronomer, Abu Sa’eed Ahmad ibn Mohammad ibn Abdul-Jalil as-Sijzi, passed away at the age of 77. He was from Sistan which was also called Sijistan, hence his epithet as-Sijzi. He had a deep knowledge of literature and dedicated his astronomical work to Azod od-Dowla the ruler of the Buwaiyhid Empire of Iran-Iraq. He dedicated one of his works to the ruler of Balkh in Greater Khorasan. While in Shiraz he conducted astronomical observations and did a lot of geometry work. According to the famous polymath Abu Rayhan Birouni, Sijzi believed in a heliocentric system in which the Earth was moving and that he invented an astrolabe called the "Zuraqi” based on this idea. Sijzi made a special study of the intersections of conic sections and circles. He replaced the old kinematical trisection of an angle by a purely geometric solution (intersection of a circle and an equilateral hyperbola).

920 solar years ago, on this day in 1099 AD, the Christian Crusader invaders from Europe set fire to the town of Mara, in Syria, as part of their murderous campaign to ravage Muslim lands and occupy Bayt al-Moqaddas.

746 lunar years ago, on this day in 694 AH, Gaykhatu, the 5^th ruler of the Iran-based Ilkhanid Dynasty was strangled to death by bowstring after a 4-year reign and was succeeded by Baydu – a grandson of the founder Hulaku Khan. Gaykhatu, who had been governor of Anatolia, was placed on the throne on the murder of his brother, Arghun, and was a noted dissolute, addicted to wine, women, and sodomy. Shortly after his ascension, Princess Kokotchin arrived in Iran from the court of Khaqan Kublai Khan of China, escorted by Marco Polo, as bride for Arghun, who was now dead, Gaykhatu decreed that she be married to his nephew and future Ilkhan, Ghazan. Gaykhatu is known to have drained the public treasury in an extravagant way. Among his beneficiaries were Nestorian Christians, who praise him abundantly for his gifts to the Church. A year after his taking power, he had sent a message to Mamluk Egypt’s Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil, threatening to conquer the whole of the Levant if Aleppo was not ceded to him. Al-Ashraf replied: "It seems the Khan has the same idea as me. I too hope to bring back Baghdad to the fold of Islam as previously. We will see which of us will be quicker". A year before his death, Gaykhatu wanted to replenish his emptied treasury. His vizier Ahmad al-Khalidi proposed the introduction of a recent Chinese invention called Chao or paper money. Gaykhatu called on Kublai Khan's ambassador Bolad in Tabriz to show how the system worked. He then printed paper money imitating the Chinese currency so closely that it even had Chinese words. The Islamic testimony of faith was printed on the paper currency as well. The plan was to get Iranians to use only paper money, and allow Gaykhatu to control the treasury. The experiment was a complete failure, as the people and merchants refused to accept paper money. Soon, bazaar riots broke out and economic activities came to a standstill. Gaykhatu had no choice but to withdraw the use of paper money.

569 solar years ago, on this day in 1450 AD, the Portuguese sailor and explorer, Bartholomew Diaz, was born. In 1488, after sailing the Atlantic Ocean toward the south, with the help of Muslim navigators, he became the first European to land on the Cape of Good Hope, in the most southern region of African Continent. Ten years after Diaz, his compatriot, Vasco da Gama, again with the help of Muslim navigators, became the first European to discover the sea route to India by rounding the southern peninsular tip of Africa. The discovery of this sea route was important for the West because the Ottoman Turks, after conquering Constantinople in the year 1453 and renaming it Istanbul had blocked Europe’s path to Asia. Diaz died in the year 1500.

503 lunar years ago, on this day in 937 AH, Emperor Zaheer od-Din Babar, the founder of the Moghal Empire of Hindustan or northern Subcontinent, died in his capital Kabul, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Naseer od-din Humayun, to the throne of Delhi. Born in Andijan in the Ferghana Valley in what is now Uzbekistan, he was the son of the local ruler, Omar Sheikh – a son of Abu Sa’eed Mirza the great-grandson of the fearsome Central Asian conqueror, Amir Timur and the last effective Timurid emperor of a domain covering present day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and parts of Iran. On his mother’s side, Babar was grandson of Yunus Khan, the ruler of Moghulistan, and thus a descendent of the fearsome Genghis Khan. Like the rest of the Timurids, he embraced Persian language and culture, though his mother tongue was Chaghatai Turkic. In his obsession to take control of Samarqand he lost Ferghana as well to Obaidullah Khan Shaibani, the ruler of the Uzbeks, who were newcomers to the region and were fast displacing the local Tajiks or Persian speakers. Babar accepted Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Dynasty of Iran, as suzerain, after rejecting demands from the Ottoman Sultan to acknowledge him as overlord. This alliance enabled him to chalk out an independent kingdom in Kabul, which he used as a base to recapture Samarqand with Safavid help, but soon lost it for the third time. Later with his combined Tajik and Turkic military, he conquered the northern parts of the Subcontinent by defeating the Afghan king, Ibrahim Lodhi of Delhi, at the Battle of Panipat in 1526 AD, and the next year routed the huge Rajput-Afghan joint army of Rana Sanga. He was a poet in both Persian and his Turkic, and was a devotee of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

492 lunar years ago, on this day in 948 AH, Iranian mathematician, Ghiyas od-Din Mansour, passed away and was laid to rest in the city of Shiraz. He learned rational and traditional sciences under his father and other Ulema. Upon the order of the Safavid Emperor, Shah Ismail, he repaired the Maragheh Observatory. He later served as prime minister to the next Safavid emperor, Shah Tahmasb. He resigned from this post and spent the rest of his life grooming students, and compiling books. His most important works include "Hojjat al-Kalaam” and "al-Haqa’eq”.

423 solar years ago, on this day in 1596 AD, Dutch landscape painter Jan Josephszoon van Goyen was born to a shoemaker in Leiden and started life as an apprentice to his father. He later studied and developed into an extremely prolific artist. Some twelve hundred paintings and more than a thousand drawings by him are known. He died in 1656 at the age of 60.

353 solar years ago, on this day in 1666 AD, the famous French traveller and dealer of precious stones, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier arrived in Dhaka (in what is now Bangladesh) after travelling overland via Iran, and met the Moghal Governor of Bengal, Mirza Abu Taleb Tehrani Shaista Khan – brother of Empress Mumtaz Mahal and hence maternal uncle of reigning Emperor Aurangzeb. Tavernier made six voyages to Iran and India between the years 1630-1668, and in view of his fluency in Persian language, he established contacts with the Safavid and Mughal courts. He travelled as far as the Deccan (southern Indian), where he visited the famous diamond mines of the Qutb-Shahi kingdom of Golkandah-Hyderabad – of Iranian origin. Here he obtained the world famous 116-carat Tavernier Blue Diamond, now known as the Hope Diamond and currently kept in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum of Washington, with an estimated price of 250 million US dollars. In 1675 at the behest of his patron, Louis XIV, he published his travelogue titled “Six Voyages”.

187 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, the French Painter, Edouard Manet, was born. He was a pivotal figure in the transition from the painting school of Realism to Impressionism. His works include “Olympia”. He died in 1883.

177 solar years ago, on this day in 1842 AD, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, a total of 16,500 British troops while retreating from Kabul were ambushed and nearly all slaughtered at the Khyber Pass. The sole survivor to reach Jalalabad was (reputedly) the badly wounded Dr. William Brydon.

172 solar years ago, on this in 1847 AD, the Treaty of Cahuenga was imposed on Mexico by the US to end the war in California, and thus pave the way for Washington’s designs to annex more Mexican territory. Throughout its history, the USA has resorted to wars, bloodshed, genocide of Amerindians, enslavement of black people, and seizure of the territories of other countries.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1915 AD, an earthquake in Avezzano, Italy, resulted in the death of 29,800 people.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, the Allied Powers held an important conference in London during World War II, upon the initiative of British Premier, Winston Churchill, for coordinating policies in the war against Germany and Italy. This conference was attended by the representatives of Britain, Holland, Belgium, France, Greece, Norway, Luxemburg, and Denmark.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, Hindu-Muslim rioting broke out in the Indian city of Calcutta (renamed Kolkata), resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people.

44 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, the famous jurisprudent, Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Rafi’i Qazvini, passed away at the age of 83. Born in Qazvin, he studied in Tehran and then in holy Qom under the famous scholar, Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Ha’eri Yazdi, mastering various branches of Islamic sciences. He authored several books.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, during demonstrations in several Iranian cities in the crucial days of the Islamic Revolution, intense clashes erupted between Shah's forces and the people, leading to martyrdom and injury of a number of courageous Iranians. The British installed regime sensing its imminent downfall floated the idea of setting up a regency council for governing the country, but the people inspired by the statements of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), rejected the idea and vowed to continue the struggle until final victory.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, students and people of the Iranian capital staged a large gathering at Tehran University, announcing their opposition to the Shah’s despotic regime and calling for return home from exile of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). This happened while the university campus was surrounded by soldiers. Following this gathering, Imam Khomeini, in his message from his place of brief exile near Paris in France, taking note of the rumours being spread by the Shah's regime and plots being hatched against the Islamic Revolution, called on the Iranian people to be alert and vigilant in order to foil all such plots.

38 solar years ago, this day in 1981 AD, Saddam of Iraq’s repressive Ba’th minority regime ordered the first chemical bombardment of Iran, 50 km west of the city of Elam, resulting in the martyrdom of several soldiers. During the 8-year war imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran on US orders, Saddam frequently used internationally banned chemical weapons supplied by the West, especially Germany, resulting in the martyrdom of at least 10,000 Iranian people and injury to over 130,000 others, as the UN turned a blind eye to his crimes.

AS/SS