This Day in History (June 19)
Today is Tuesday; 29th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 5th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1439 lunar hijri; and June 19, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2258 solar years ago, on this day in 240 BC, Greek astronomer and mathematician, Eratosthenes, estimated the circumference of the earth. As director of the library of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt, he read in a papyrus book that in the city of Syene (present day Aswan) as noon approaches on the summer solstice (longest day of the year), shadows of temple columns grow shorter, disappearing completely at noon when the sun is directly overhead. While at the same time, 843 km away to the north in Rhacotis (the ancient Egyptian city on which Alexandria was founded), where because of the time difference, a rod could cast a pronounced shadow. Thus, he realized that the surface of the Earth could not be flat. It must be curved. Using the length of the rod, and the length of the shadow, as the legs of a triangle, he calculated the angle of the sun's rays. This turned out to be about 7°, or 1/50th the circumference of a circle. Taking the Earth as spherical, and knowing both the distance and direction of Syene, he concluded that the Earth's circumference was fifty times that distance.
1403 lunar years ago, on this day in 36 AH, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), started from his capital Kufa in Iraq towards Syria with a force of 90,000 to meet the threats of the rebellious governor, Mua'wiyyah ibn Abu Sufyan. The result was the protracted War of Siffeen in the place of the same name, in the vicinity of Aleppo near Reqqa that exposed the hypocrisy of the Omayyads and proved the righteousness of the Imam as the First Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
1379 lunar years ago, on this day in 60 AH, Muslim Ibn Aqeel, the cousin and emissary of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), arrived in Kufa and was warmly welcomed by the people, with as many as 18,000 pledging allegiance and reaffirming the letters they had sent to the Imam in Mecca, inviting him to come to Iraq to deliver the Ummah from the tyrannical and Godless rule of the Omayyad usurper, Yazid bin Mua'wiyyah. Muslim wrote to the Imam of the situation. Two months later when Yazid dispatched to Kufa as governor, the bloodthirsty Obaidollah ibn Ziyad, who immediately resorted to threats and bribes, the majority of the Kufans broke their oath of allegiance and betrayed Muslim, as a result of which he was martyred. When Imam Husain (AS) arrived in Iraq he was prevented from entering Kufa and cruelly martyred in the plain of Karbala by the forces of Ibn Ziyad that also included the majority of those who had written letters to him, inviting him to come to Iraq and deliver them from Omayyad oppression.
749 solar years ago, on this day in 1269 AD, King Louis IX of France ordered all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge of "shame” to be fined ten livres of silver. The Jews were subjected to persecution and humiliation in Christian Europe that often resulted in the burning of their localities and mass massacres, at a time when they enjoyed all rights in Muslim lands and rose to prominent positions. Louis IX was an avowed enemy of Muslims as well, and suffered a humiliating defeat in 1250 in the Battle of Fareskur in Egypt which he had invaded as head of the 7th crusade – in league with the Buddhist Mongols, who were ravaging Iran and the Muslim World from the east. While trying to flee, the French king was captured along with his brothers, and had to procure release by paying a huge ransom. In 1270 he mobilised the 8th Crusade and invaded Tunis along with Prince Edward of England, to use it as a base for attacking other Muslim lands, especially Palestine. Disease and dysentery struck the crusader camps as Divine Wrath, resulting in the death of many including Louis IX himself in August the same year, thereby aborting the Crusade.
395 solar years ago, on this day in 1623 AD, French author and mathematician and innovator of calculation devices, Blaise Pascal, was born. In hydrodynamics he formulated what came to be known as Pascal's law of pressure. He became religious in the waning years of his life and wrote a book on Christianity titled "Provincial Letters”. He died at the age of 39.
271 solar years ago, on this in 1747 AD, Nader Shah Afshar was assassinated in Quchan, Khorasan, at the age of 59, by the captain of his guards, Salah Beg, because of his increasing cruelty, after a 11-year reign as Emperor. Born as Nader Qoli into the Qereqlu clan of the Afshars, a Qizilbash tribe settled in northern Khorasan; following the death of his camel-driver father, Imam Qoli, he, along with his mother, was abducted as a young boy by marauding Uzbek tribesmen, from whom Nader managed to escape. He joined a band of brigands and eventually became their leader. Under the patronage of Afshar chieftains, he rose through the ranks to become a powerful military figure. During the chaos resulting from the defeat of Shah Sultan Hussain Safavi and the occupation of the Iranian capital, Isfahan, by the Hotaki Afghan rebels, Nader initially submitted to the local Afghan governor of Mashhad, Malek Mahmoud, but then rebelled and built up his own small army. The martyred Sultan Hussain's son had declared himself Shah Tahmasp II with the support of the Qajar tribe, with whom Nader Qoli joined ranks. He managed to discover the treacherous correspondence of the Qajarid chief with the Afghans, and promptly revealed the plot to Shah Tahmasp II, who executed the traitor and made Nader the chief of his army. Nader subsequently took the title Tahmasp Qoli (Servant of Tahmasp). In late 1726, he recaptured Mashhad. In May 1729 he took Herat. In September 1729 in the Battle of Damghan, he decisively defeated the usurper Ashraf Afghan Hotaki, and in December liberated the imperial capital Isfahan. In the spring of 1730, he attacked the Ottomans and regained most of the lost Iranian territory. His relations with the Shah, however, declined as the latter grew jealous of his general's military success. While Nader was in the east, Tahmasp II tried to assert himself by launching a campaign to liberate Yerevan but ended up losing all of Armenia and Georgia to the Ottomans. Nader denounced the treaty with the Ottomans, and in 1732 forced Tahmasp II to abdicate the throne in favour of the infant, Abbas III, to whom Nader became regent. He now liberated Armenia and Georgia, as well as Baghdad from the Ottomans, and soon liberated the whole of the Caucasus by forcing Russia to return Daghestan to Iran. In January 1736, he held an assembly of leading political figures to suggest removal of Abbas III, and on March 8, 1736, crowned himself the new Shah, thereby ending the two centuries and thirty-five year rule of the Safavid Dynasty. In 1738, Nader liberated Qandahar, and when the Hotaki Afghan rebels fled into India, he asked for their surrender from the Moghal Emperor, Mohammad Shah, whose weakness provided him the pretext to cross the border into the Subcontinent to capture Ghazni, Kabul, Peshawar, Sindh and Lahore. He then advanced deeper into India crossing the River Indus and defeating the large Moghal army at the Battle of Karnal in 1739. Nader, along with the defeated Mohammad Shah entered Delhi in triumph. He forced the Moghal Emperor to hand over the keys of the royal treasury, from which he took the famous Peacock Throne, along with a trove of fabulous jewels, such as the fabulous diamonds Koh-e Noor (Mount of Light) and Darya-e Noor (Sea of Light). He also took with him thousands of elephants, horses and camels, loaded with the booty, which was so great that he stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years following his return. In 1740 he launched the Central Asian campaign to conquer the Khanates of Bukhara and Kharazm. In the Persian Gulf, he liberated Bahrain, and in 1743 he conquered Oman and its capital Muscat. Then in the war against the Ottomans, he freed the holy city of Najaf in Iraq in 1746, a year before his death.
239 solar years ago, on this day in 1779 AD, Mohammad Ali Khan, the 2nd ruler of the Zand Dynasty and son of its Founder, Karim Khan, died of heart attack, after some 5 months in power. His brother Abu’l- Fath succeeded him, only to be deposed two months later by his uncle, Sadeq Khan. During his almost 30-year rule, Karim Khan Zand held sway over almost all of Iran, along with Basra in Iraq and parts of the Caucasus, except for Greater Khorasan. To legitimize his rule, he had placed the Safavid prince, Ismail III, as a figurehead, and never took the title of Shah, contenting himself with the honourary epithet "Wakil ar-Re’aya” (Representative of the People). He based his administration on social justice, and is regarded as one of the most able rulers in Iranian history. On his death, infighting weakened the dynasty, and for the next 15 years that it lasted, none of the seven rulers who followed him could ensure public welfare and security, oblivious of the danger posed by the Qajar warlord, Agha Mohammad Khan, who overthrew the Zands in 1794 to establish the Qajarid Dynasty – which the British replaced in 1925 with the Pahlavi potentate, Reza Khan.
151 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Austrian prince, Maximilian, who had occupied Mexico a year-and-a-half earlier, was executed by freedom fighters. In 1855 President Benito Juarez of Mexico, as part of his nationalistic policies, had curtailed the undue privileges of the White minority and the power of the Catholic Church – measures that angered European powers, which led by France, invaded Mexico and imposed Maximilian as king. Juarez, however, continued his struggles against the French forces and the monarchists, and after crushing them and executing the imposed king, once again was instated as the president.
141 solar years ago, on this day in 1877 AD, the first flying object that did not need a tarmac and could vertically take off and touchdown, or remain stationary in air, was tested. Named Helicopter, it was tested by Italian inventor, Enrico Forlanini, in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. This primary model of the helicopter was later perfected by Polish expert, Igor Sikorsky, and patented in his name.
125 lunar years ago, on this day in 1314 AH, pan-Islamist thinker and pioneer of the anti-colonial struggles, Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi, attained martyrdom in Istanbul at the age of 59; being poisoned on the orders of the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul-Hamid II. Born in Asadabad near the western Iranian city of Hamedan, he honed his skills in religion, philosophy, astronomy, and history. Well-versed in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, English, French, and Russian languages, he strove for Islamic solidarity and strongly opposed colonialists. At the age of 17, he started his travels abroad, first studying theology in Iraq, and then visiting India at a crucial period in its history – shortly after the British had crushed the Uprising by massacring Muslims and exiling to Burma, the last king of the once mighty Timurid Moghal Empire, Bahador Shah Zafar, a year after they overthrew Wajed Ali Shah of the Naishapuri kingdom of Iranian origin of Awadh. The young Jamal od-Din was profoundly affected by the events, and lived for several years in the semi-independent Muslim state of Haiderabad-Deccan under patronage of its famous prime minister, Salar Jung Mokhtar ol-Mulk. Here he countered through pamphlets and treatises the "naturist” views of the pro-British Sir Seyyed Ahmad Khan, the founder of the Anglo-Mohammadan College that later became Aligarh Muslim University. These were published in book form in Haiderabad under the title "Haqiqat-e Madhhab-e Naychari wa Bayan-e Hal-e Naychariyan” (Truth about the Nature Sect and an Explanation of Naturists). After a brief detention in Calcutta, he had to leave India under pressure from the British, and after performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, he returned to Iran. A few years later he left for Afghanistan to serve as advisor to Amir Dost Mohammad Khan. Expelled from Kabul by the next ruler, Sher Ali Khan, he went to Egypt, where until his expulsion eight years later, he won several admirers and students – including Shaikh Mohammad Abduh, who wrote a commentary on the "Nahj al-Balagha” (Collection of Imam Ali’s [AS] sermons, letters and maxims). Forced to leave Egypt, he went to Istanbul, from where he travelled around Europe, visiting Paris, London, Munich, Moscow and St. Petersburg. From France, he published the daily "al-Orwat al-Wosqa” and from Britain "Zia al-Khafeqin” to awaken the Muslims. He was invited back to Iran by Nasser od-Din Shah Qajar to serve as political advisor, but soon fell out with the autocratic king and took refuge in the holy shrine of Seyyed Abdul-Azim al-Hassani, before being expelled seven months later to Iraq. He informed the leading marja’ of the time, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi of the ruin brought on Iranian economy by granting of the tobacco concession to the British. The Ayatollah’s fatwa against tobacco consumption saved Iran. Seyyed Jamal od-Din was invited by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid to Istanbul, where several of his disciples visited him, including Mirza Reza Kirmani, who was to assassinate Nasser od-Din Shah. Jamal od-Din Asadabadi eventually fell out with the Ottoman Sultan and was poisoned to death. His reformist and pan-Islamist ideas were opposed by colonial powers and the repressive Muslim regimes. Among his works is "ar-Radd ala ad-Dahriyyiin” (Refutation of the Materialists), in answer to Darwin's absurd theory of evolution titled "On the Origin of Species”. Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi, who at times called himself ‘Afghani’ in order to conceal his Iranian and Shi’a Muslim identity, profoundly impacted many thinkers of his age and the subsequent generations. Among these were the famous Persian-Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal Lahori, Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Founder of Pakistan), and prominent Indian Muslim educationist, Abu’l Kalaam Azad. In Egypt, besides Abduh, he deeply influenced Rashid Redha, and Ali Abdur-Razeq, while in Turkey: Namik Kemal, Said Nursi and others. The Constitutional Movement that triumphed in Iran was also influenced by him.
69 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, prominent philosopher of the Subcontinent, Seyyed Zafar ul-Hassan, passed away in Lahore, Pakistan, at the age of 64. Educated at Allahabad, he obtained doctorates from the universities of Erlangen and Heidelberg in Germany, before becoming the first Muslim Scholar of the Subcontinent to obtain a PhD from Oxford University in Philosophy. He started teaching at Aligarh Muslim University, India in 1911, and in 1913 became professor of philosophy at Islamia College, Peshawar in what is now Pakistan. From 1924 to 1945 he was professor of philosophy at the Aligarh Muslim University, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Philosophy. In 1939, he put forward the 'Aligarh Scheme' along with Dr Afzaal Hussain Qaderi, titled "The Problem of Indian Muslims" proposing three independent states in the Subcontinent. From 1945 to 1947, he served as Emeritus Professor at Aligarh. In 1947, he migrated to Pakistan on its creation. He wrote many books including "Revelation and Prophet", "Message of Iqbal", and "Philosophy of Islam".
67 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, following the ratification of the act for nationalization of Iran’s oil industry on March 20, 1951, a board comprised of Iranian experts took charge of the executive affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company, as per the recommendations of Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qassem Kashani and Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, thereby dissolving the British controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and dismissing the 450-odd foreign staff. The Iranian people achieved a landmark victory this day against domestic despotism and foreign hegemony.
57 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, Britain granted independence to the tiny Persian Gulf emirate of Kuwait, which throughout history, was part of Iran’s Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid Empires. With the advent of Islam, this area was classified with Iraq and was subsequently ruled by the Iranian Buwaiyhid dynasty of Baghdad, followed by the vast Iran-based empires of the Seljuqids, the Ilkhanids, the Qara Qoyunlus, and the Safavids. The Ottoman Turks briefly took over this mostly deserted land, which in the 18th century saw an influx of nomads from Najd in the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula who occupied it and began to call it Kuwait. In 1756, they chose a certain Sabah bin Jaber as the tribal chief, whose descendants have continued to rule Kuwait. In 1899, British colonialists, as part of their policy to curtail the power and influence of the Ottoman Turks, declared Kuwait as a protectorate. With the discovery of oil, tiny Kuwait became rich overnight, and even after independence from Britain, it's foreign and defence policies are virtually controlled by the West, especially the US, in view of persistent claims by neighbouring Iraq. From August 1990 to March 1991, Kuwait was occupied by Saddam, the Ba'thist dictator of Baghdad, who was forced to evacuate it as a result of the First Persian Gulf War launched by the US-led multinational alliance. Kuwait covers an area of 18,000 sq km and shares land borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
41 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, Iranian author and thinker, Dr. Ali Shariati, passed away at the age of 44 in London, and his body was brought to Syria and buried in Damascus in the mausoleum of Hazrat Zainab (SA) – the granddaughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in a religious and academic family in Mazinan village near the northeastern city of Sabzevar, Khorasan, during his academic years he started his political activities against the despotic Pahlavi regime. After obtaining PhD in Sociology of Religions from France's Sorbonne University, he returned to Iran and established himself as an influential orator at Tehran’s Husseiniyeh Irshaad, alongside prominent lecturers and thinkers such as Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari and Hojjat al-Islam Dr. Mohammad Javad Bahonar. Shariati was a prolific writer and has left behind more than 200 works in books, journals, and tapes of his speeches. Among his valuable books, mention can be made of "Islam and Mankind”, "Hajj", "Marxism and Other Western Fallacies: An Islamic Critique", "Martyrdom", "A Visage of Prophet Mohammad", and "Fatemah is Fatemah."
20 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Ayatollah Ali Gharavi Tabrizi was martyred at the age of 68, along with his companions, while returning to holy Najaf from pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala. He was gunned down by agents of the repressive Ba’th minority regime, which two months earlier had martyred another prominent scholar of the Najaf seminary, Ayatollah Morteza Boroujerdi. Born in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, after initial studies at holy Qom, Ayatollah Gharavi had left for Najaf at the age of 19 for higher studies. On attaining the status of Ijtehad was involved in grooming students and writing books.
11 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Takfiri terrorists, as part of their campaign to desecrate holy Islamic sites, triggered a deadly bomb blast at Baghdad’s al-Khilani Mosque, resulting in the martyrdom of some hundred men, women, and children, and injury to 218 others.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)
2258 solar years ago, on this day in 240 BC, Greek astronomer and mathematician, Eratosthenes, estimated the circumference of the earth. As director of the library of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt, he read in a papyrus book that in the city of Syene (present day Aswan) as noon approaches on the summer solstice (longest day of the year), shadows of temple columns grow shorter, disappearing completely at noon when the sun is directly overhead. While at the same time, 843 km away to the north in Rhacotis (the ancient Egyptian city on which Alexandria was founded), where because of the time difference, a rod could cast a pronounced shadow. Thus, he realized that the surface of the Earth could not be flat. It must be curved. Using the length of the rod, and the length of the shadow, as the legs of a triangle, he calculated the angle of the sun's rays. This turned out to be about 7°, or 1/50th the circumference of a circle. Taking the Earth as spherical, and knowing both the distance and direction of Syene, he concluded that the Earth's circumference was fifty times that distance.
1403 lunar years ago, on this day in 36 AH, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), started from his capital Kufa in Iraq towards Syria with a force of 90,000 to meet the threats of the rebellious governor, Mua'wiyyah ibn Abu Sufyan. The result was the protracted War of Siffeen in the place of the same name, in the vicinity of Aleppo near Reqqa that exposed the hypocrisy of the Omayyads and proved the righteousness of the Imam as the First Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
1379 lunar years ago, on this day in 60 AH, Muslim Ibn Aqeel, the cousin and emissary of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), arrived in Kufa and was warmly welcomed by the people, with as many as 18,000 pledging allegiance and reaffirming the letters they had sent to the Imam in Mecca, inviting him to come to Iraq to deliver the Ummah from the tyrannical and Godless rule of the Omayyad usurper, Yazid bin Mua'wiyyah. Muslim wrote to the Imam of the situation. Two months later when Yazid dispatched to Kufa as governor, the bloodthirsty Obaidollah ibn Ziyad, who immediately resorted to threats and bribes, the majority of the Kufans broke their oath of allegiance and betrayed Muslim, as a result of which he was martyred. When Imam Husain (AS) arrived in Iraq he was prevented from entering Kufa and cruelly martyred in the plain of Karbala by the forces of Ibn Ziyad that also included the majority of those who had written letters to him, inviting him to come to Iraq and deliver them from Omayyad oppression.
749 solar years ago, on this day in 1269 AD, King Louis IX of France ordered all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge of "shame” to be fined ten livres of silver. The Jews were subjected to persecution and humiliation in Christian Europe that often resulted in the burning of their localities and mass massacres, at a time when they enjoyed all rights in Muslim lands and rose to prominent positions. Louis IX was an avowed enemy of Muslims as well, and suffered a humiliating defeat in 1250 in the Battle of Fareskur in Egypt which he had invaded as head of the 7th crusade – in league with the Buddhist Mongols, who were ravaging Iran and the Muslim World from the east. While trying to flee, the French king was captured along with his brothers, and had to procure release by paying a huge ransom. In 1270 he mobilised the 8th Crusade and invaded Tunis along with Prince Edward of England, to use it as a base for attacking other Muslim lands, especially Palestine. Disease and dysentery struck the crusader camps as Divine Wrath, resulting in the death of many including Louis IX himself in August the same year, thereby aborting the Crusade.
395 solar years ago, on this day in 1623 AD, French author and mathematician and innovator of calculation devices, Blaise Pascal, was born. In hydrodynamics he formulated what came to be known as Pascal's law of pressure. He became religious in the waning years of his life and wrote a book on Christianity titled "Provincial Letters”. He died at the age of 39.
271 solar years ago, on this in 1747 AD, Nader Shah Afshar was assassinated in Quchan, Khorasan, at the age of 59, by the captain of his guards, Salah Beg, because of his increasing cruelty, after a 11-year reign as Emperor. Born as Nader Qoli into the Qereqlu clan of the Afshars, a Qizilbash tribe settled in northern Khorasan; following the death of his camel-driver father, Imam Qoli, he, along with his mother, was abducted as a young boy by marauding Uzbek tribesmen, from whom Nader managed to escape. He joined a band of brigands and eventually became their leader. Under the patronage of Afshar chieftains, he rose through the ranks to become a powerful military figure. During the chaos resulting from the defeat of Shah Sultan Hussain Safavi and the occupation of the Iranian capital, Isfahan, by the Hotaki Afghan rebels, Nader initially submitted to the local Afghan governor of Mashhad, Malek Mahmoud, but then rebelled and built up his own small army. The martyred Sultan Hussain's son had declared himself Shah Tahmasp II with the support of the Qajar tribe, with whom Nader Qoli joined ranks. He managed to discover the treacherous correspondence of the Qajarid chief with the Afghans, and promptly revealed the plot to Shah Tahmasp II, who executed the traitor and made Nader the chief of his army. Nader subsequently took the title Tahmasp Qoli (Servant of Tahmasp). In late 1726, he recaptured Mashhad. In May 1729 he took Herat. In September 1729 in the Battle of Damghan, he decisively defeated the usurper Ashraf Afghan Hotaki, and in December liberated the imperial capital Isfahan. In the spring of 1730, he attacked the Ottomans and regained most of the lost Iranian territory. His relations with the Shah, however, declined as the latter grew jealous of his general's military success. While Nader was in the east, Tahmasp II tried to assert himself by launching a campaign to liberate Yerevan but ended up losing all of Armenia and Georgia to the Ottomans. Nader denounced the treaty with the Ottomans, and in 1732 forced Tahmasp II to abdicate the throne in favour of the infant, Abbas III, to whom Nader became regent. He now liberated Armenia and Georgia, as well as Baghdad from the Ottomans, and soon liberated the whole of the Caucasus by forcing Russia to return Daghestan to Iran. In January 1736, he held an assembly of leading political figures to suggest removal of Abbas III, and on March 8, 1736, crowned himself the new Shah, thereby ending the two centuries and thirty-five year rule of the Safavid Dynasty. In 1738, Nader liberated Qandahar, and when the Hotaki Afghan rebels fled into India, he asked for their surrender from the Moghal Emperor, Mohammad Shah, whose weakness provided him the pretext to cross the border into the Subcontinent to capture Ghazni, Kabul, Peshawar, Sindh and Lahore. He then advanced deeper into India crossing the River Indus and defeating the large Moghal army at the Battle of Karnal in 1739. Nader, along with the defeated Mohammad Shah entered Delhi in triumph. He forced the Moghal Emperor to hand over the keys of the royal treasury, from which he took the famous Peacock Throne, along with a trove of fabulous jewels, such as the fabulous diamonds Koh-e Noor (Mount of Light) and Darya-e Noor (Sea of Light). He also took with him thousands of elephants, horses and camels, loaded with the booty, which was so great that he stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years following his return. In 1740 he launched the Central Asian campaign to conquer the Khanates of Bukhara and Kharazm. In the Persian Gulf, he liberated Bahrain, and in 1743 he conquered Oman and its capital Muscat. Then in the war against the Ottomans, he freed the holy city of Najaf in Iraq in 1746, a year before his death.
239 solar years ago, on this day in 1779 AD, Mohammad Ali Khan, the 2nd ruler of the Zand Dynasty and son of its Founder, Karim Khan, died of heart attack, after some 5 months in power. His brother Abu’l- Fath succeeded him, only to be deposed two months later by his uncle, Sadeq Khan. During his almost 30-year rule, Karim Khan Zand held sway over almost all of Iran, along with Basra in Iraq and parts of the Caucasus, except for Greater Khorasan. To legitimize his rule, he had placed the Safavid prince, Ismail III, as a figurehead, and never took the title of Shah, contenting himself with the honourary epithet "Wakil ar-Re’aya” (Representative of the People). He based his administration on social justice, and is regarded as one of the most able rulers in Iranian history. On his death, infighting weakened the dynasty, and for the next 15 years that it lasted, none of the seven rulers who followed him could ensure public welfare and security, oblivious of the danger posed by the Qajar warlord, Agha Mohammad Khan, who overthrew the Zands in 1794 to establish the Qajarid Dynasty – which the British replaced in 1925 with the Pahlavi potentate, Reza Khan.
151 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Austrian prince, Maximilian, who had occupied Mexico a year-and-a-half earlier, was executed by freedom fighters. In 1855 President Benito Juarez of Mexico, as part of his nationalistic policies, had curtailed the undue privileges of the White minority and the power of the Catholic Church – measures that angered European powers, which led by France, invaded Mexico and imposed Maximilian as king. Juarez, however, continued his struggles against the French forces and the monarchists, and after crushing them and executing the imposed king, once again was instated as the president.
141 solar years ago, on this day in 1877 AD, the first flying object that did not need a tarmac and could vertically take off and touchdown, or remain stationary in air, was tested. Named Helicopter, it was tested by Italian inventor, Enrico Forlanini, in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. This primary model of the helicopter was later perfected by Polish expert, Igor Sikorsky, and patented in his name.
125 lunar years ago, on this day in 1314 AH, pan-Islamist thinker and pioneer of the anti-colonial struggles, Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi, attained martyrdom in Istanbul at the age of 59; being poisoned on the orders of the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul-Hamid II. Born in Asadabad near the western Iranian city of Hamedan, he honed his skills in religion, philosophy, astronomy, and history. Well-versed in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, English, French, and Russian languages, he strove for Islamic solidarity and strongly opposed colonialists. At the age of 17, he started his travels abroad, first studying theology in Iraq, and then visiting India at a crucial period in its history – shortly after the British had crushed the Uprising by massacring Muslims and exiling to Burma, the last king of the once mighty Timurid Moghal Empire, Bahador Shah Zafar, a year after they overthrew Wajed Ali Shah of the Naishapuri kingdom of Iranian origin of Awadh. The young Jamal od-Din was profoundly affected by the events, and lived for several years in the semi-independent Muslim state of Haiderabad-Deccan under patronage of its famous prime minister, Salar Jung Mokhtar ol-Mulk. Here he countered through pamphlets and treatises the "naturist” views of the pro-British Sir Seyyed Ahmad Khan, the founder of the Anglo-Mohammadan College that later became Aligarh Muslim University. These were published in book form in Haiderabad under the title "Haqiqat-e Madhhab-e Naychari wa Bayan-e Hal-e Naychariyan” (Truth about the Nature Sect and an Explanation of Naturists). After a brief detention in Calcutta, he had to leave India under pressure from the British, and after performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, he returned to Iran. A few years later he left for Afghanistan to serve as advisor to Amir Dost Mohammad Khan. Expelled from Kabul by the next ruler, Sher Ali Khan, he went to Egypt, where until his expulsion eight years later, he won several admirers and students – including Shaikh Mohammad Abduh, who wrote a commentary on the "Nahj al-Balagha” (Collection of Imam Ali’s [AS] sermons, letters and maxims). Forced to leave Egypt, he went to Istanbul, from where he travelled around Europe, visiting Paris, London, Munich, Moscow and St. Petersburg. From France, he published the daily "al-Orwat al-Wosqa” and from Britain "Zia al-Khafeqin” to awaken the Muslims. He was invited back to Iran by Nasser od-Din Shah Qajar to serve as political advisor, but soon fell out with the autocratic king and took refuge in the holy shrine of Seyyed Abdul-Azim al-Hassani, before being expelled seven months later to Iraq. He informed the leading marja’ of the time, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi of the ruin brought on Iranian economy by granting of the tobacco concession to the British. The Ayatollah’s fatwa against tobacco consumption saved Iran. Seyyed Jamal od-Din was invited by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid to Istanbul, where several of his disciples visited him, including Mirza Reza Kirmani, who was to assassinate Nasser od-Din Shah. Jamal od-Din Asadabadi eventually fell out with the Ottoman Sultan and was poisoned to death. His reformist and pan-Islamist ideas were opposed by colonial powers and the repressive Muslim regimes. Among his works is "ar-Radd ala ad-Dahriyyiin” (Refutation of the Materialists), in answer to Darwin's absurd theory of evolution titled "On the Origin of Species”. Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi, who at times called himself ‘Afghani’ in order to conceal his Iranian and Shi’a Muslim identity, profoundly impacted many thinkers of his age and the subsequent generations. Among these were the famous Persian-Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal Lahori, Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Founder of Pakistan), and prominent Indian Muslim educationist, Abu’l Kalaam Azad. In Egypt, besides Abduh, he deeply influenced Rashid Redha, and Ali Abdur-Razeq, while in Turkey: Namik Kemal, Said Nursi and others. The Constitutional Movement that triumphed in Iran was also influenced by him.
69 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, prominent philosopher of the Subcontinent, Seyyed Zafar ul-Hassan, passed away in Lahore, Pakistan, at the age of 64. Educated at Allahabad, he obtained doctorates from the universities of Erlangen and Heidelberg in Germany, before becoming the first Muslim Scholar of the Subcontinent to obtain a PhD from Oxford University in Philosophy. He started teaching at Aligarh Muslim University, India in 1911, and in 1913 became professor of philosophy at Islamia College, Peshawar in what is now Pakistan. From 1924 to 1945 he was professor of philosophy at the Aligarh Muslim University, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Philosophy. In 1939, he put forward the 'Aligarh Scheme' along with Dr Afzaal Hussain Qaderi, titled "The Problem of Indian Muslims" proposing three independent states in the Subcontinent. From 1945 to 1947, he served as Emeritus Professor at Aligarh. In 1947, he migrated to Pakistan on its creation. He wrote many books including "Revelation and Prophet", "Message of Iqbal", and "Philosophy of Islam".
67 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, following the ratification of the act for nationalization of Iran’s oil industry on March 20, 1951, a board comprised of Iranian experts took charge of the executive affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company, as per the recommendations of Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qassem Kashani and Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, thereby dissolving the British controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and dismissing the 450-odd foreign staff. The Iranian people achieved a landmark victory this day against domestic despotism and foreign hegemony.
57 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, Britain granted independence to the tiny Persian Gulf emirate of Kuwait, which throughout history, was part of Iran’s Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid Empires. With the advent of Islam, this area was classified with Iraq and was subsequently ruled by the Iranian Buwaiyhid dynasty of Baghdad, followed by the vast Iran-based empires of the Seljuqids, the Ilkhanids, the Qara Qoyunlus, and the Safavids. The Ottoman Turks briefly took over this mostly deserted land, which in the 18th century saw an influx of nomads from Najd in the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula who occupied it and began to call it Kuwait. In 1756, they chose a certain Sabah bin Jaber as the tribal chief, whose descendants have continued to rule Kuwait. In 1899, British colonialists, as part of their policy to curtail the power and influence of the Ottoman Turks, declared Kuwait as a protectorate. With the discovery of oil, tiny Kuwait became rich overnight, and even after independence from Britain, it's foreign and defence policies are virtually controlled by the West, especially the US, in view of persistent claims by neighbouring Iraq. From August 1990 to March 1991, Kuwait was occupied by Saddam, the Ba'thist dictator of Baghdad, who was forced to evacuate it as a result of the First Persian Gulf War launched by the US-led multinational alliance. Kuwait covers an area of 18,000 sq km and shares land borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
41 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, Iranian author and thinker, Dr. Ali Shariati, passed away at the age of 44 in London, and his body was brought to Syria and buried in Damascus in the mausoleum of Hazrat Zainab (SA) – the granddaughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in a religious and academic family in Mazinan village near the northeastern city of Sabzevar, Khorasan, during his academic years he started his political activities against the despotic Pahlavi regime. After obtaining PhD in Sociology of Religions from France's Sorbonne University, he returned to Iran and established himself as an influential orator at Tehran’s Husseiniyeh Irshaad, alongside prominent lecturers and thinkers such as Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari and Hojjat al-Islam Dr. Mohammad Javad Bahonar. Shariati was a prolific writer and has left behind more than 200 works in books, journals, and tapes of his speeches. Among his valuable books, mention can be made of "Islam and Mankind”, "Hajj", "Marxism and Other Western Fallacies: An Islamic Critique", "Martyrdom", "A Visage of Prophet Mohammad", and "Fatemah is Fatemah."
20 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Ayatollah Ali Gharavi Tabrizi was martyred at the age of 68, along with his companions, while returning to holy Najaf from pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala. He was gunned down by agents of the repressive Ba’th minority regime, which two months earlier had martyred another prominent scholar of the Najaf seminary, Ayatollah Morteza Boroujerdi. Born in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, after initial studies at holy Qom, Ayatollah Gharavi had left for Najaf at the age of 19 for higher studies. On attaining the status of Ijtehad was involved in grooming students and writing books.
11 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Takfiri terrorists, as part of their campaign to desecrate holy Islamic sites, triggered a deadly bomb blast at Baghdad’s al-Khilani Mosque, resulting in the martyrdom of some hundred men, women, and children, and injury to 218 others.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)