Today is Monday; 7th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1399 solar hijri; corresponding to 10th of the Islamic month of Safar 1442 lunar hijri; and September 28, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2068 solar years ago, on this day in 48 BC, on landing in Egypt, Roman general and politician Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus or Pompey the Great, was murdered by his own confidante, Septimius, on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt at the age of 58.
1353 lunar years ago, on this day in 99 AH, Sulayman ibn Abdul-Malik, the 7th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, died at the age of 43 after a reign of 2 years and nine months in Qenshirin, near Aleppo on his way to invade the Byzantine Empire, following the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople by his brother, Maslamah.
1113 lunar years ago, on this day in 329 AH, the Iranian statesman and historian, Abu Ali Mohammad Amirak Bal’ami, passed away. His most famous work is "Tarikh-e Bal’ami”, which is a Persian translation of the famous Iranian historian Abu Ja’far Mohammad bin Jarir Tabari’s monumental Arabic work "Tarikh ar-Rusol wa’l-Mulook” (History of Prophets and Kings). It contains supplementary material, some of which is found nowhere else. It is the oldest Persian prose work after the Shahnamah of Daqiqi.
782 solar years ago, on this day in 1238 AD, the Muslim emirate of Valencia in Spain was forced to surrender to the besieging King James I of Aragon, on certain conditions that were never kept by the Christians who persecuted Muslims and converted mosques into churches, beside expelling over 50,000 of the people of this land, which for five hundred years had nurtured many great Islamic scholars and poets. Known as "Balansia” to Muslims and also called "Madinat-at-Turab” (or City of Sands), its keys were delivered to King James by the Muslim king, Zayan, with the words: "In the city of Valencia live Muslims, the nobles of my people, along with Christians and Jews. I hope you continue to govern in the same harmony, all working and living together in this noble land. Here, during my reign, Easter processions went out and Christians professed their religion freely, as our Qur’an recognizes Christ and the Virgin. I hope you bestow the same treatment to the Muslims of Valencia.” Poets such as Ibn al-Abbar and Ibn Amira, have mourned their exile from this beloved Islamic city in their poems. The Christians broke their promise and gradually obliterated all traces of Islam and Muslims.
482 solar years ago, on this day in 1538 AD, during the Ottoman-Venetian War, the Turkish navy led by Khayr od-Din Pasha (Barbarossa or Red-beard to the Europeans), scored a decisive victory over a so-called Holy League fleet assembled by Christian powers in the Battle of Preveza off the western coast of the Province of Yunanistan (modern day Greece).
439 lunar years ago, on this day in 1003 AH, the famous Persian poet and scholar of India, Shaikh Abu’l-Faiz, known by his penname "Faizi”, died from asthma at the age of 49. He was the "Malik-ush-Shu’ara” (Poet Laureate) of the court of the Moghal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar Shah, and was elder brother of the equally famous court historian Abu’l-Fazl.
180 solar years ago, on this day in 1838 AD, Akbar Shah II, the titular emperor of the great Moghal Empire died and was succeeded on the throne of Delhi by his son, Mohammad Bahadur Shah II Zafar. In 1857, the curtain came down on the empire founded in 1525 by the Central Asian adventurer, Zaheer od-Din Babar (protégé of Shah Ismail Safavi of Iran), as Bahadur Shah Zafar, in whose name the people of northern India rose against the British, was dethroned, humiliated and exiled in 1858 by the colonialists to Yangon (Rangoon) in Burma, where he died in 1862. Zafar was an accomplished poet in both Urdu and Persian.
179 lunar years ago, on this day in 1263 AH, prominent Iranian author, Mullah Ja’far Shariatmadar Astarabadi passed away in Tehran at the age of 66 and his body was taken to holy Najaf in Iraq for burial. Among his books is "al-Masabih” on principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.
129 solar years ago, on this day in 1891 AD, US author, Herman Melville, died at the age of 72. A sailor by profession, when his ship sank in one of his voyages, he was marooned on an island inhabited by primitive people. Melville wrote about this adventure and his escape from what he alleges cannibals in a book titled "Typee” which made him famous. His most important novel is "Moby-Dick”.
125 solar years ago, on this day in 1895 AD, French physician and chemist, Louis Pasteur, died at the age of 73.
60 lunar years ago, on this day in 1382 AH, Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abdul-Hadi Shirazi, passed away at the age of 77 in Kufa and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). He wrote several books, including "Dar al-Islam”.
50 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, Egyptian president, Col. Jamal Abdun-Nasser, died at the age of 54.
39 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Hojjat ol-Islam Seyyed Abdul-Karim Hasheminejad was martyred by the MKO terrorists in the holy city of Mashhad at the age of 48. Among the works he authored are: "Hazrat Zahra (SA)”, and "The School of Thought of Resistance”.
39 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, several high-ranking commanders of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces were martyred in a plane crash while returning from the "Samen al-Ai’mma” operations that broke the siege of Abadan and pushed back the invading Ba’thist forces. Among the 80 martyrs were Minister of Defence Musa Namju, Commander of the Ground Forces Valiollah Fallahi, Air Force Commander Colonel Javad Fakouri, IRGC Deputy Commander Yusuf Kolahdouz, and IRGC’s Mohammad Ali Jahan Aara. On hearing of this incident Imam Khomeini (RA) paid tributes to the martyrs and referred to them as "Commanders of Islam”.
25 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, the jurisprudent, Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Safi Isfahani, passed away at the 76. He wrote manyl books, including "Comparative Study of Islamic Economy with Socialist and Capitalist Economies”.
24 solar years ago, on this day in 1996 AD, The UN Security Council issued a resolution, calling for end to excavation of a tunnel underneath the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Mosque by the illegal Zionist entity. The US, however, lobbied for removal of this clause from the resolution. The excavation at al-Aqsa triggered bloody confrontations between the Zionists and Palestinians, resulting in the martyrdom of hundreds of Palestinians and wounding of thousands. Israel, because of US support, continues its excavations in the surroundings of this sacred mosque.
20 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, the al-Aqsa Intefadha of the Palestinian people started following desecration of this sacred mosque by Ariel Sharon, the ringleader of the Likud party and the mass murderer of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps of southern Lebanon. Sharon, who had entered the sanctified Muslim place of worship with his boots on, died in 2914 after lying in coma for eight long years, which is a sign of divine wrath.
12 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Iran’s parliament voted to designate the CIA and the US Army as terrorist outfits, in response to a US Senate resolution seeking a similar designation for the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC).