Today is Thursday; 10th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1399 solar hijri; corresponding to 13th of the Islamic month of Safar 1442 lunar hijri; and October 1, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2351 solar years ago, on this day in 331 BC, Alexander of Macedon, during his invasion of the vast Persian Empire defeated Emperor Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela near Mosul in present day Iraq, resulting in the fall of the Achaemenian Empire of Iran.
1139 lunar years ago, on this day in 303 AH, the well-known Iranian Sunni Muslim compiler of Hadith, Ahmad ibn Shu’aib ibn Ali an-Nasa’i, passed away at the age of 89. He was born in a village near the ancient Parthian capital of Nasa in Khorasan, northeastern Iran (presently in Turkmenistan). When he was 20 years old, he started his journey in pursuit of knowledge and covered Transoxiana, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hijaz, and Egypt, where he settled. He is the author of "Sunnan an-Nasa’i”, one of the six canonical hadith collections of Sunni Muslims. Towards the end of his life he wrote a book on the unrivalled virtues and merits of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) divinely-decreed vicegerent, Imam Ali (AS), titled "Khasa’es Amir al-Mominin Ali”. When he recited this excellent book from the pulpit of the main mosque of Damascus, he was attacked by enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt and was severely beaten. He left Syria and while on his way to Egypt, succumbed to his wounds in Palestine.
1072 lunar years ago, on this day in 370 AH, the prominent Iranian philologist of the Arabic language and exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Mohammad Ibn Ahmad al-Azhari al-Harawi, passed away at the age of 88 in his hometown Herat, in what is now Afghanistan, but which is historically part of Iran’s Khorasan. His important book is "Tahdhib al-Lugha”, spread over 15 volumes on philology in which he has frequently cited the unmatched eloquence of Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) and quoted some of the sermons of the Imam, decades before Seyyed Radhi compiled the "Nahj al-Balaghah”. He has compiled exegesis of Holy Qur’an and Hadith.
604 solar years ago, on this day in 1416 AD, Yaqub Spata, the Muslim ruler of Arta in Albania, was murdered by the Christian chief, Carlo I of Tocco, mainly for embracing the truth of Islam. Born in a Christian family, he was raised at the Ottoman court of Sultan Mohammad I, where he became Muslim and changed his name to Yaqub.
433 solar years ago, on this day in 1587 AD, Shah Abbas I was crowned the 5th Safavid Emperor of Iran at the age of 16 years in Qazvin by a faction of the powerful Qizilbash guards led by Murshid Qoli Khan who deposed his father, the weak-willed and almost blind Mohammad Khodabandah after a reign of 9 years.
249 lunar years ago, on this day in 1193 AH, Mohammad Karim Khan Zand, the founder of the Zand Dynasty of Iran, died in his capital Shiraz at the age of 74 after a reign of 29 years, during which he restored stability to the country in the chaotic aftermath of Nader Shah Afshar’s assassination in 1747, by establishing his rule almost all over Iran, along with Basra and parts of the Caucasus, except for Greater Khorasan.
193 solar years ago, on this day in 1827 AD, Russia, in violation of the Treaty of Golestan signed in 1813 with Qajarid Iran, following the end of its war and occupation of Daghestan and other regions in the Caucasus, sent an army under General Ivan Paskevich to start the 2nd Russo-Persian war. The Russians seized the Khanate of Yerevan from Iran as well as Nakhchevan and what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan. Yerevan is currently capital of the Republic of Armenia.
133 solar years ago, on this day in1887 AD, the eastern part of Baluchistan was formally annexed by the British to their dominions in India to end any claims to this vast region by Afghanistan and Iran. This region which is now in Pakistan, originally belonged to Iran, both before and after the advent of Islam, and until the assassination of Nader Shah Afshar in the 1740s.
124 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, Liaqat Ali Khan, the Indian Muslim statesman who became Pakistan’s first prime minister on its birth in 1947, was born in an aristocratic family in Karnal, East Punjab.
119 solar years ago, on this day in 1901 AD, with the death of Amir Abdur-Rahman Khan, the Pashto ruler of Afghanistan, the plight of the Hazara people neared its end. Although he is credited with what is called the unification of Afghanistan, his principal aim was to make the rule of ethnic Pakhtouns paramount by cruelly suppressing other ethnic and lingual groups such as the Tajik, Uzbek, Balouch and Hazara. He used to treat the Persian-speaking Hazara Muslims as slaves, because of their adherence to the path of the Ahl al-Bayt or Blessed Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). In 1880, the Hazara rose in revolt but were savagely crushed and many of them were forced to seek refuge across the borders in British India, especially in Quetta, as well as in Khorasan and the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran. The Hazaras remained de facto slaves with no rights, until King Amanullah Khan declared Afghanistan’s independence in 1919.
102 solar years ago, on this day in 1918 AD, Abdullah was installed as the last Khan of Khiva of the Khongirad Dynasty at the age of 45 years on the death of his father Muhammad Rahim Bahadur. He had no real authority since Junaid, a Turkmen general, held executive powers. In 1920 the Bolsheviks overthrew the Khanate of Khiva and sent Abdullah as prisoner to Moscow where he died a few years later in a hospital. The Khanate of Khiva was set up in 1511 in the historical ancient Iranian region of Khwarezm, which briefly returned to Iranian rule under Nader Shah Afshar from 1740 and 1746.
71 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, the People’s Republic of China was officially announced by communist party leader, Mao Zedong. After the end of World War 2 and the withdrawal of Japanese occupation forces, Mao emerged victorious from his struggle for control of China with the US-backed nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to the island of Formosa, which is known today as Taiwan.
65 solar years ago, on this day in 1955 AD, the Muslim populated Eastern Turkestan region, which the Qing Dynasty of China had conquered in the second half of the 9th century from Yaqoub Beg the Tajik and restored the previous Khaja Dynasty to power, was renamed by the communist regime of Beijing as The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is China’s largest administrative division and the eighth largest subdivision in the world, spanning over 1.6 million km, but only about 9.7% of the land area is fit for human habitation. The capital of Xinjiang is Urumqi and among its major cities are Kashgar, Khotan, and Yarkand with their rich Islamic culture, including use of Persian language.
60 solar years ago, on this day in 1960 AD, Nigeria gained independence from British colonial rule.
35 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, warplanes of the illegal Zionist entity pounded the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Tunis, martyring seventy people and injuring hundreds of others. The PLO headquarters were shifted to the Tunisian capital following Israel’s invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon in 1982. The UN failed to condemn this blatant act of state terrorism because of US veto at the Security Council.
10 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Iranian cinema and TV actor, Reza Khandan passed away at the age of 57. His first film was "Gomshodagan” or the Lost, while his last film was the famous TV serial "Mokhtar-Nameh” on the campaign of Mokhtar ibn Abu Obaidah to avenge the innocent blood of the Prophet’s grandson Imam Husain (AS). Khandan played the role of Sinan bin Anas.