Today is Sunday; 13th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 15th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1439 lunar hijri; and March 4, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1393 solar years ago, on this day in 625 AD, as per the Gregorian calendar, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the eldest grandson and 2nd Infallible Successor to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was born in Medina – on the 15th of Ramadhan 3 AH. His name "Hasan", which means the "Most Excellent" was chosen by the Prophet on the commandment of God and is the Arabic equivalent of "Shabar" the name in Hebrew of the first born son of Aaron, the brother and vicegerent of Prophet Moses (AS). Imam Hasan (AS), along with his younger brother, Imam Husain (AS), was hailed by the Prophet as Twin Leaders of the Youths of Paradise. The two brothers along with their parents, Imam Ali (AS) and Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), were covered by the Prophet under his cloak as the Ahl al-Bayt on revelation of the Verse of Purity (holy Qur’an 33:33), and this immaculate group also accompanied the Prophet to the decisive debate of Mubahela with the Christians of Najran on revelation of ayah 61 of Surah Nisa in order to prove the truth of Islam. Six months after succeeding to the caliphate, following his father’s martyrdom, Imam Hasan (AS), in view of the widespread sedition and hypocrisy in the society, agreed to relinquish political rule to the charlatan Mu’awiya ibn Abu Sufyan in order to unmask him in his true heathen colours. Thus, his prudence and foresight saved Islam from the disaster of civil war, at a time when the Byzantine Empire was waiting for weakening of Muslim ranks to attack and occupy Syria and Bayt al-Moqaddas.
1366 lunar years ago, on this day in 73 AH, Abdullah ibn Zubayr, the claimant to the caliphate, was killed in Mecca. He was seditious and crafty and misinterpreted and misused religion for worldly ambitions. He had intense hatred for the Ahl al-Bayt or progeny of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He was among the main perpetrators of the first "fitna” (sedition) in Islamic history. It was his killing of innocent Muslims that resulted in the Battle of Jamal near Basra, Iraq, in 36 AH against the Commander of the Faithful, the Prophet’s righteous successor, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). The Imam won the battle and magnanimously treated his fallen foes, allowing them to return peacefully to Medina. Abdullah ibn Zubayr never opposed the misrule of Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, but in 61 AH, when the Prophet’s grandson Imam Husain (AS) came to Mecca following his refusal to acknowledge the Godless rule of Yazid, he did not support him. Yazid’s forces after perpetrating the heartrending tragedy of Karbala, plundered and massacred the people of Medina and then attacked Mecca, where Abdullah ibn Zubayr had taken refuge. Yazid’s sudden death halted the campaign, and Abdullah ibn Zubayr began to consolidate his power in Hijaz as the self-styled caliph. He, however, made the folly of allowing the Omayyad governor Marwan ibn Hakam and the latter’s son, Abdul-Malik, to leave the Hijaz for Syria, where after Yazid, father and son seized the caliphate and posed a serious challenge to Ibn Zubayr. For almost a decade, the Muslim realm was split between two self-styled caliphs – Ibn Zubayr in Hijaz and Abdul-Malek in Syria. The two fought each other for control of Egypt, but because of the uprising of Mukhtar ibn Abu Obayda to avenge the blood of Imam Husain (AS), Iraq and the eastern lands were out of their control. Abdullah ibn Zubayr again erred by refusing Mukhtar’s invitation to join forces against the Omayyads, who were on the verge of being wiped out. He instead imprisoned members of the Prophet’s Hashemite clan with the intention of burning them alive. His plan was foiled by the timely arrival of a force sent by Mukhtar to free the Hashemites. In 67 AH, the spiteful Abdullah ibn Zubayr sent an army under his brother, Mus’ab, to kill Mukhtar and take control of Iraq. Mus’ab succeeded, but a year later, he was defeated and killed by Abdul-Malik bin Marwan. Five years later, Abdullah ibn Zubayr was defeated, killed and crucified by the cruel Omayyad governor of Iraq, Hajjaj, who went on to destroy the holy Ka’ba
866 solar years ago, on this day in 1152 AD, Duke Frederick III of Swabia was elected king of the Germans. In 1155, he became king of Italy as well and was crowned ‘Roman Emperor’ by Pope Adrian IV. Called Barbarossa for his red beard, he was of brutal nature and during the siege of the Italian city of Crema, he barbarically hurtled prisoners, including children at the wall, forcing the city to surrender. The siege was marked by several episodes of brutality against fellow Christians by the Germans, who hung Cremaschi prisoners to siege machines, resulting in bloody manslaughter. Barbarossa, who on the instructions of Pope Urban III had assembled a huge anti-Muslim army of crusaders in alliance with the kings of France and England, and marched overland towards Syria through the Byzantine Empire; miserably drowned in River Saleph (Goksu Nehri) in what is now Turkey. In 1190 AD, he and his horse were struck by divine wrath and swept away to a terrible death that aborted the 3rd European crusade against Muslims. His leaderless army lost heart and fled, while many Christian knights, afraid of the prospect of fighting Muslims, committed suicide.
825 solar years ago, on this day in 1193 AD, Salah od-Din Yusuf bin Ayyoub, the first Kurdish sultan of Egypt and Syria, died in Damascus at the age of 56. Born in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, his fame mainly rests on his mobilization of Kurds, Turks, Arabs, Iranians and Egyptians to liberate the Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas from 88 years of occupation by European Crusader invaders. Known in the Western world as Saladin, he rose from obscure origins to serve as assistant to his uncle, Asad od-Din Shirkuh (Persian for Mountain Lion), who was in the service of the Turkic Zengid Dynasty of Syria. Sent to Fatemid Egypt in 1163 with his uncle by Noor od-Din Zengi, he climbed the ranks of the Ismaili Shi’ite government as a result of his military successes against Crusader assaults. When Shirkuh died in 1169, the caliph al-Adeed made the mistake of appointing Salah od-Din vizier. He now began to undermine Fatemid rule and following al-Adeed's death in 1171 he seized power and abolished the two-and-a-half century rule of the Fatemid caliphate. Salah od-Din savagely persecuted the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt, burned libraries, and imposed the Sunni creed on the Egyptians. In the following years, he led forays against the Crusaders in Palestine, ordered the conquest of Yemen and staved off pro-Fatemid uprisings in Egypt. Soon after the death of his former master, Noor od-Din in 1174, he attacked Syria, took Damascus, forcibly married Zengi’s widow, and by mid-1175 had conquered Hama and Homs. A few years later he seized Aleppo, although he was unable to capture Mosul from the Zengids. Another blot on Salah od-Din’s character was his forcing of his son, Malik az-Zaher, the governor of Aleppo, to kill the famous Iranian Islamic philosopher Shahab od-Din Yahya Sohrewardi – the proponent of the Illuminist Philosophy (al-Hikmat al-Ishraaq).
780 solar years ago, on this day in 1238 AD, the Battle of the Sit River was fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol army of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Rus. After the Mongols sacked his capital of Vladimir, Yuri fled across the Volga northward, to Yaroslavl, where he hastily mustered an army. He and his brothers then turned back toward Vladimir in hopes of relieving the city before the Mongols took it, but was attacked by the Mongol force under Burundai and fled. He was overtaken on the Sit River and killed there along with his nephew, Prince Vsevolod of Yaroslavl. The battle marked the end of unified resistance to the Mongols and inaugurated two centuries of the Mongol domination of modern day-Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
668 lunar years ago, on this day in 771 AH, the prominent scholar, Fakhr al-Muhaqqaqin Mohammad ibn Hassan al-Hilli, passed away at the age of 89. He was the son of the celebrated Allamah Hilli, under whose guidance he attained the status of Ijtehad. He wrote prolifically on a wide variety of topics including exegesis of the holy Qur'an, theology, jurisprudence, and philosophy. Among his books are "al-Kafiya”, and "Tahsil an-Najaat”.
499 solar years ago, on this day in 1519 AD, Hernan Cortes, the notorious Spanish invader and destroyer of the Aztec Amerindian Empire, through deceit and treachery, arrived in Mexico. He took Emperor Cuauhtemoc and several other indigenous nobles as prisoners, forced them to accompany him to Honduras, and while in the Chontal Maya capital of Itzamkanac, treacherously murdered them. He looted the gold and silver of the Aztec people and destroyed flourishing Amerindian cities. Cortes died embittered in Spain at the age of 62.
345 lunar years ago, on this day in 1094 AH, an Ottoman Turkish army led by Hussein Pasha conquered Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia in Europe, with the crown of the Austrian emperor being among the spoils of war.
249 solar years ago, on this day in 1769 AD, The Founder of the Khedive Dynasty of Egypt, Mohammad Ali Pasha, was born in an Albanian family in Kavala, Greece, which was then the Ottoman province of Yunanistan. He joined the army and rapidly rose through its ranks as a commander. In 1801 he was dispatched to Egypt by the Ottoman Sultan, following the withdrawal of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French forces. In 1805, he proclaimed himself the "Khedive” (Persian for Viceroy or Ruler) of Egypt and Sudan by eliminating all rivals. He transformed Egypt into a regional power. He initiated wide ranging reforms and established for the first time a professional bureaucracy. In the 1820s, he sent the first educational mission of Egyptian students to Europe. This contact resulted in Arabic literary renaissance, known as the "an-Nahdha”. To support the modernization of the industry and the military, he set up several schools in various fields. In 1835, he founded the first indigenous press in the Arab World, the Bulaq Press, which published the official gazette of the government. Bulaq also published rare old Arabic, Persian and Turkish books. He pursued military campaigns, initially on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmoud II, in Arabia and Greece. He landed in Hijaz to liberate the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from desert brigands of the Najd led by Abdullah ibn Saud of the heretical Wahhabi cult who had desecrated the holy shrines. After purging the Hijaz of the Wahhabis, Mohammad Ali sent his son, Ibrahim Pasha, in 1812, to completely destroy and root out the Aal-e Saud. After a two-year campaign, the Aal-e Saud clan was crushed and most of its members captured. The leader, Abdullah Ibn Saud, was sent to Istanbul, and executed for having desecrated the holy shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala, before his sacrilegious attack on the Hijaz. Because of personal ambitions, Mohammad Ali came into open conflict with the Ottoman Empire, seized Syria and advanced as far as Qonya in Anatolia in 1832, forcing the Sultan to recognize his rule over Egypt and Syria. Earlier in 1827 he had captured Athens, before the combined attack of the British-French forced him to retreat. The dynasty he established lasted till the military coup of 1952 and the ouster of King Farouq by General Mohammad Najib and Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser. Mohammad Ali Pasha died in Cairo at the age of 80 after ruling for 45 years as a nominal governor of the Ottoman Empire, but in fact the virtual ruler.
186 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, French Egyptologist, Jean-Francois Champollion, died at the age of 41. He established scientific methods in archaeology and pioneered in deciphering hieroglyphics. He was fluent in several languages including Latin, Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Chaldean, Hebrew, Persian, and Coptic. He succeeded in deciphering the Rosetta Stone, which is a stone slab unearthed in 1799 at Rosetta, near Alexandria, Egypt, with inscriptions in two languages and three scripts – Egyptian and Greek.
170 solar years ago, on this day in 1848 AD, the uprising of Hungarian freedom-seekers against Austrian domination started. The repressive policies of Austrian Chancellor, Klemens Metternich, led to unrest across the majority of non-German territories of the Austrian Empire, including Hungary. On April 4, 1849, the Hungarians announced independence, but Austria with assistance from Czarist Russia suppressed them and executed their leaders.
161 solar years ago, on this day in 1857 AD, the Treaty of Paris ended the Anglo-Persian War, which the British had imposed on Iran by attacking and occupying Bushehr on the Persian Gulf as well as Khorramshahr, in order to pressure Nasser od-Din Shah Qajar to surrender the city of Herat and its surroundings in Khorasan to their Afghan ally. Herat, the then capital of Khorasan, had been part of Iran from time immemorial till the war broke in 1856 when its rebellious governor declared independence and placed the area under British protection. As per the Treaty of Paris, the weakened government of Iran withdrew from Herat and was forced to drop all claims to this historical Iranian city and most of eastern Khorasan, which is now part of Afghanistan. The British had launched their sea attacks on Iran from their naval bases in Mumbai by deploying battalions of sepoys (corruption for the Persian word "sipahi" for Indian soldiers), who in February 1856 had been used to overthrow Wajed Ali Shah of the Naishaburi Dynasty of Iranian origin of Awadh in northern India, and would again be mobilized in mid 1857 to crush the uprising of the Indian people against colonial rule and end the Mughal Dynasty of Delhi by exiling to Burma its last ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar.
26 solar years ago, on this day, in 1991 AD Dr. Ali Shafaie of Iran passed away at the age of 59. A philosopher of repute, he was head of Theological Department of Ferdowsi University in holy Mashhad. He authored the book "Science of Philosophy".
9 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)