Today is Saturday; 29th of the Iranian month of Azar 1393 solar hijri; corresponding to 27th of the Islamic month of Safar 1436 lunar hijri; and December 20, 2014, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1372 solar years ago, on this day in 642 AD, Muslims decisively defeated the forces of the 29th and last Sassanid monarch of the Persian Empire, Yazdgerd III, near the western Iranian city of Nahavand, in the crucial battle called "Fath al-Fotouh”  (Victory of Victories), since it ended the 416-year Sassanid rule over what is now Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Chechen and Daghestan), and parts of Central Asia and modern Turkey. According to the early Iranian Muslim historian, Abu Ja’far at-Tabari, Firouzan, a Persian army of 50,000 demoralized soldiers led by Firouzan, was outmaneuvered by a force of 30,000 Arab Muslims. Yazdgerd fled to Khorasan where the people did not welcome him and after his failure to raise an army, he was murdered in 651 by a miller in Marv (presently in Turkmenistan). In addition to the firm faith of Muslims, what led to the defeat of Yazdgerd was the fact that the Iranians, who were fed up with the tyranny and corruption of Sassanid kings and the irrationality of Zoroastrian tenets, enthusiastically accepted the truth of Islam, given its egalitarian values of monotheism, justice, fraternity, and equality. Soon Iranian Muslims turned into flag-bearers for promotion and spread of the divine religion of Islam, its ethereal teachings, and its scientific and cultural endeavours.
1227 lunar years ago, on this day in 209 AH, the Iranian Sunni Muslim compiler of Hadith, Mohammad Ibn Majah al-Qazvini, was born in Qazvin (west of Tehran). He travelled widely through Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hejaz, and Egypt, to gather hadith and compile his book "Sunan”, which contains 4000 hadith. Although later this compilation was included in the "Sihah as-Sitta” (Six Primary Books of Hadith of Sunni Muslims), it is still regarded as the weakest one. Perhaps for fear of the Abbasid regime, Ibn Majah failed to collect genuine information about the Sunnah and Seerah of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) from the main sources of his time, that is, Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS) and Imam Hasan al-Askari – the 10th and 11th Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt. Like his Iranian compatriots before him, such as Bukhari, Muslim Naishapuri, Tirmizi, and Abu Dawoud Sijistani, he failed to seek the company of the disciples and companions of the Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt in order to ascertain whether the hadith he had gathered were really genuine. Ibn Majah died in 273 AH in his hometown Qazvin at the age of 64.
492 solar years ago, on this day in 1522 AD, the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea surrendered to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman after a siege of several months, and the surviving Knights Hospitalers were allowed to leave for Malta. The Turks found and released thousands of Muslim prisoners on Rhodes who were enslaved and forced to work for the Christians.
79 solar years ago, on this day in 1935 AD, the Muslim revolutionary, Sheikh Mohammad Izz od-Din al-Qassaam, attained martyrdom near Haifa in Palestine at the age of 53. Born in Jableh in the Latakia Governorate of the Ottoman Province of Syria, he was a follower of the Qaderi Sufi order. After studying at Egypt’s al-Azhar Academy, he returned home to become prayer leader and teacher at a local mosque. After Italy’s 1911 seizure of Libya from the Turks, he recruited dozens of volunteers, but Ottoman officials prevented him from going to Libya. He joined the Ottoman army when World War I broke out, and served as a chaplain at a base. After the war, he organized a local defense force to fight the French occupation of Syria, but internecine fighting forced him to take refuge in the mountains to plan guerrilla warfare. He was a key figure in the 1921 Syrian uprising against the French when Faisal, a son of the British agent, Sharif Hussain, was brought from Hejaz and declared king of Syria in Damascus. Al-Qassaam was sentenced to death after the failure of the revolt. When the French occupiers besieged the city, he fled via Beirut to Haifa in British-occupied Palestine, where he concentrated his activities on mobilizing Islamic resistance against the colonialists. His followers were mainly landless farmers drifting into Haifa from Upper Galilee, where land purchases by the illegal Zionist migrants from Europe was creating a crisis. He joined the Istiqlal (Independence) Party and in 1929 was appointed the marriage registrar in Mufti Amin al-Hussaini’s Supreme Muslim Council’s Sharia Court in Haifa, a role that allowed him to tour the northern villages, whose inhabitants he encouraged to set up agricultural cooperatives. In 1930 he established ‘Black Hand’, a combatant organization for fighting the British occupiers as well as the illegal Zionist migrants. He arranged military training for peasants and by 1935 had enlisted nearly 800 men. In November 1935, fearing arrest after a British constable was killed in a skirmish with some of his followers he fled with his men to the hills between Jenin and Nablus. The British cornered him in a cave near Ya’bad, and in the ensuing battle he was martyred. The manner of his last stand assumed legendary proportions in Palestinian and other Arab circles as the symbol of resistance. The al-Qassaam Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance (Hamas) is named after him for the struggle to liberate their homeland from the Zionist usurpers.
64 solar years ago, on this day in 1950 AD, the prominent Iranian expert of the art of Marquetry, Mohammad Hussein Sane’i Khatam, passed away at the age of 67. Born in the southern city of Shiraz, he was also a calligrapher well familiar with Arabic, Persian and English. He has left behind valuable artistic works that adorn museums in Iran and abroad.
63 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, Oman gained independence from British colonial rule. Oman used to be a part of various Persian Empires, both before and after the advent of Islam. In the 16th century it was occupied by the Portuguese, who were driven out in 1622 by a joint Iranian-British force. Iran also ruled Oman from 1737 to 1749 during Nader Shah’s reign, after which power was seized by the Aal-e Sa’eed Tribe of the Abadhi sect of the Khawarej. In the late 19th century Oman became a British colony. Oman, with its capital of Muscat, covers an area of over 212000 sq km. It lies on the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, sharing borders with Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the UAE. It is separated from Iran by the narrow Hormuz Strait.
57 solar years ago, on this day in 1957 AD, the acclaimed Iranian musician, Abu’l-Hassan Saba, passed away. He was also highly interested in painting, literature, and flowers, in addition to being an expert on traditional Iranian music. He wrote books on Iranian musical instruments and their history.
46 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, US novelist, John Steinbeck, died at the age of 66. The bitter incidents in his life set the stage for his novels, which depicted the hardships of the underprivileged strata of the American society. One of his famous novels is the "Grapes of Wrath”.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)