Today is Wednesday; 1^st of the Iranian month of Esfand 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 14^th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and February 20, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

935 lunar years ago, on this day in 505 AH, the prominent Iranian Sunni Muslim scholar, Abu Hamed Mohammad Ghazali Tusi, passed away. Born in Tabaran near Tus in Khorasan, he was a prodigy and at the age of 28 became a prominent scholar, whose fame led the vizier, Khwajah Nizam ol-Mulk Tusi, to invite him to lecture at Baghdad’s famous Nizamiyah Academy. After several years he left for Syria, lived in Bayt ol-Moqaddas for some years, and following performance of the Hajj pilgrimage, returned to his native Iran where he spent the rest of the years of his life. He was known as Hojjat ol-Islam (authority in Islam), and was proficient in jurisprudence and Sufism, as well as scholastic theology. He is the author of the famous book "Ihya Oloum ad-Din” (in Arabic), and later wrote its summary in his native Persian titled "Kimiya-e Sa’adat”. He stirred controversy through his work "Tahafut al-Falasifa” (Incoherence of the Philosophers), which is a criticism of the Iranian Islamic genius, Abu Ali Ibn Sina’s rational evaluation of Aristotle’s views and the contribution to Islamic philosophy by Abu Nasr Farabi. In response, the Spanish Muslim philosopher, Ibn Rushd (Averroes) wrote "Tahafut at-Tahafut” (Incoherence of the Incoherence), which is a refutation of Ghazali’s views, while in the subsequent century, the brilliant Iranian polymath, Khwajah Naseer od-Din Tusi wrote a highly acclaimed defence of Ibn Sina and Islamic philosophy.

761 solar years ago, on this day in 1258 AD, Musta’sim-Billah, the 37th and last self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death under the feet of horses on the orders of the Mongol conqueror Hulagu Khan, ten days after the sack of Baghdad. The incompetent Musta’sim, whose 16-year rule was confined to Iraq and some eastern parts of Syria, had neither raised an army to defend Baghdad nor did he attempt to negotiate with Hulagu, to whom two years earlier he had supplied troops to conquer the Ismaili Nizari stronghold of Alamout (150 km west of modern Tehran). The contemporary Italian traveler, Marco Polo, reports in his "Travels” that upon finding the caliph's great stores of treasure which could have been spent for the defence of the realm, Hulagu locked him in his treasure room without food or water for a while, telling him: "Eat of your treasure as much as you want, since you are so fond of it.” The curtain thus came down on 508 solar years of the Abbasid caliphate founded by Abu’l-Abbas as-Saffah on defeating the Omayyads in 750 AD by hijacking the sentiments of the Arab and Iranian masses for the Ahl al-Bayt, thereby depriving once again the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) of their political right to rule the Islamic realm.

342 solar years ago, on this day in 1677 AD, France defeated the Spanish in the Caribbean Sea and took control of Haiti, which it ruled for 130 years. In 1804, a major uprising of the black people enslaved in the Americas by the Europeans, took place in Haiti, which emerged as the first independent country in Latin America.

288 lunar years ago, on this day in 1152 AH, the trilateral Treaty of Belgrade was signed, according to which the Austrians returned Belgrade (in present day Serbia) to the Ottoman Turks after 22 years of occupation. Russia for its part pledged to demolish the Fortress of Azak overlooking the Sea of Azov at the northeastern tip of the Black Sea, and leave the surrounding lands to the Ottomans, with a promise that no Russian ship will sail in the Black Sea.

255 lunar years ago, on this day in 1185 AH, the prominent Iranian religious scholar and poet, Allamah Ahmad Naraqi, was born in Naraq to the equally famous religious scholar Mullah Mohammad Mahdi Naraqi. 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 political conscious ulema helped influence the declaration of war by Iran against Russian forces and eventually at the end of Muharram 1242 AH (1826), some of the areas occupied by Russia as per the dubious Gulistan Treaty, were liberated by Iran. He passed away at the age of 60 in Kashan and his body was taken to holy Najaf in Iraq for burial beside his father, Mullah Mahdi Naraqi, in the sacred mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

153 solar years ago, on this day in 1866 AD, France defeated Mexican freedom fighters and crowned its Austrian client, Prince Maximilian, as king of Mexico. Five years later, the Mexicans rallied under former President, Benito Juarez, to reinstate him on ousting Maximilian.

128 lunar years ago, on this day in 1312 AH, Grand Ayatollah Mirza Habibollah Rashti, passed away. He was a product of the famous Islamic seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq and studied under prominent scholars such as Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli. Among his works, mention could be made of the book: "Badi al-Afkaar”.

92 solar years ago, on this day in 1928 AD, Britain granted 'protectorate' status to Jordan – a state it had created in 1920 by the river of the same name, by dividing the historical land of "Shaam” (Greater Syria) in collaboration with France on the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War 1. Britain installed as king of Jordan, Abdullah, a son of their agent Sharif Hussain of Hejaz, for his services to London during World War 1 against the Turks. Faisal, another son of Sharif Hussain, was placed as king in Damascus, but when driven out by the French four months later, was installed in Baghdad as king in 1921 against the wishes of the Iraqi people after Britain crushed the popular uprising led by Ayatollah Mirza Taqi Shirazi and Ayatollah Kashef al-Gheta. In the mid-1920s when Sharif Hussain lost Hejaz, including the religious cities of Mecca and Medina and the commercial centres of Jeddah and Ta'ef, to another British agent, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud and his Wahhabi brigands from Najd, Britain bestowed upon the new strongman in 1932 an artificial entity called Saudi Arabia. Though Britain granted independence to Jordan in 1946, it continued to dictate orders before handing it over to the US which today exercises hegemony over this land. Jordan, like several other Arab states of West Asia, has no historical roots and almost 80 percent of its population is made up of Palestinians. It is part of the historical land of "Shaam” which was carved up by Britain and France into Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine – where in 1948 the British planted Israel after illegally settling on this Muslim land, hundreds of thousands of European Jews. Demonstrations frequently rock the Jordanian capital, Amman, and other cities, calling for reforms and scrapping of the monarchy due to its subservience to the US and its treasonous ties with Israel.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, Britain agreed to grant independence to the Subcontinent August, but after partitioning it into India, West Pakistan, and East Pakistan (which in 1971 became Bangladesh), while deliberately leaving Muslim-majority Kashmir as a bone of contention. The fate of Haiderabad-Deccan which was a Muslim kingdom and the largest of the subcontinent's semi-independent states (nearly the size of France) was left by Britain in limbo despite the fact that its ruler, Nizam ul-Mulk Asef Jah VII, had generously helped Britain in both the World Wars with tens of millions of pounds-sterling in addition to troops. Landlocked Haiderabad-Deccan, which for a year functioned as an independent sovereign state with membership in the UN, was forced to surrender to India in September 1948 following a week-long war. It is worth noting that the British had entered Muslim-ruled India as traders in the 17th century. With weakening of the Moghal Empire, they treacherously seized in mid-18^th century the province of Bengal (today's Bangladesh and the Indian state of Bengal) from its Muslim rulers of Iranian origin – Siraj od-Dowla, Mir Ja'far, Mir Qassem – and thereupon gradually expanded their influence by taking control of the Subcontinent through wars and imposed treaties. In 1856 they annexed the Shi’ite Muslim kingdom of Awadh and deposed Wajed Ali Shah to end the 134-year rule of the Naishapuri Dynasty of Iranian origin. In 1857, when both the Muslims and Hindus rose against British rule in northern India, they were crushed, Delhi was stormed, and the nominal Moghal ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was imprisoned and exiled to Burma. India was subsequently declared a part of the British Empire with Queen Victoria as Empress of India. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, because of the struggles of the Indian people against colonialism under the leadership of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Ali Brothers, Jawaharlal Nehru, etc, the British were forced to agree to independence. India despite being a non-Muslim country has the world's largest population of Muslims of around 250 million.

59 solar years ago, on this day in 1960 AD, British archaeologist Charles Leonard Woolley, whose excavation of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in modern Iraq greatly advanced knowledge of Mesopotamian civilization, died. His discovery enabled scholars to trace the history of the city from its final days during the 4th century BC back to its prehistoric beginnings (c. 4000 BC). His finds revealed much about the art, architecture, literature, religion, and administration in this "cradle of civilization." In royal tombs dating from about 2700 BC, he uncovered the practice of the sacrificial burial of a deceased king's personal retinue. He discovered tombs of great material wealth, gold and silver jewelry, large paintings of ancient Mesopotamian culture at its zenith, and other furnishings. The most extravagant tomb of Queen Pu-Abi was untouched by the hands of looters through the millennia, with many well-preserved items, including a cylindrical seal bearing her name in Sumerian. His widely read book "Ur of the Chaldees: A record of Seven Years of Excavation (1922-29)”, describes his findings in a manner both informative to specialists and laymen.

45 lunar years ago, on this day in 1395 AH, the scholar, Ayatollah Mirza Ahmad Ashtiyani, passed away at the age of 95. Son of Mirza Hasan Mujtahid Ashtiyani, he received Ijtihad certificate from five leading Marja' of his time at the seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, that is, Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hussain Na’ini, Grand Ayatollah Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’iri Yazdi, Grand Ayatollah Aqa Ziya od-Din Iraqi, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani and Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi. He taught both intellectual and narrative sciences. Some of his works are: "Risala-e Qawl-e Thabit”, "Maqalaat Ahmadiyya” and "Nama-e Rahbaran”. From 1340 till his death fifty-five years later he taught and guided people in Tehran. His eldest son, Mirza Mohammad Baqer Ashtiyani, who passed away at the age of 81, nine years after the death of his father, was aslo great scholar in his own time.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, as per a decree of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), the Council of Guardians was formed to act as a supervisory body to oversee whether the laws passed by the parliament are in conformity with the Islamic shari'a and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This 12-member council is made up of six leading jurisprudents nominated by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and six judicial experts nominated by the Judiciary Chief. The members have to win the confidence of the parliament. The Council of Guardians plays a unique role in overseeing the presidential, parliamentary and other elections, and to determine whether or not the candidates have the required qualifications and eligibility. It is a superb example of popular religious rule in Iran in line with the aspirations of the people.

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, Iranian researcher and writer, Hojjat al-Islam Mostafa Zamani died at the age of 58. He was imprisoned by the Shah's regime several times for his revolutionary activities. On establishment of Islamic Republic, in addition to teaching at academic centres, he wrote some 50 books in order to revive Islamic ideology amongst the young generation. His famous work is "Ibrahim Bot-Shikan ya Qahreman-e Towhid" (Abraham the Iconoclast or Champion of Monotheism).

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, a terrorist attack on Iran’s Cultural Centre in Multan, Pakistan, by Saudi-funded Takfiri terrorists of the Lashkar-e Jhangvi outfit, resulted in the martyrdom of 8 persons, including its director, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Rahimi, career diplomat who had served with distinction earlier in India, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Pakistan said the terrorists overpowered the guards at the gate, burst into the building and after spraying the staff with machinegun fire fled the scene. Iran strongly denounced it as another case of negligence by the Pakistani security department, which seven years earlier, had failed to arrest, prosecute and punish the murderers of the Iranian consul-general in Lahore, Sadeq Ganji.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2003 AD, an Iranian military plane carrying 275 personnel crashed in southeastern Iran, resulting in the martyrdom of all on board, including some senior commanders.

(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)