Today is Wednesday; 22nd of the Iranian month of Dey 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 12th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and January 11, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1306 lunar years ago, on this day in 132 AH, the new breed of usurpers of the Islamic realm, the Abbasids, officially commenced their rule, with Abu’l-Abbas Abdullah ibn Mohammad, assuming the title of caliph after defeating Marwan al-Hemar, the last ruler of the Godless Omayyad dynasty. The new caliph was known as "Saffah” because of his wanton shedding of Muslim blood. The Abbasids, who rose to power by deceiving the people, especially that of Iran, Iraq and Hijaz, by claiming to restore the political rule to the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, turned out to be the mortal enemies of the Infallible Imams of the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). The Abbasids were helped by their Iranian agent, Abu Muslim Khorasani, who inflicted a series of defeats on the Omayyads. Saffah not only massacred almost all the Omayyads, except for Abdur-Rahman who fled to Spain and founded a dynasty there, but he also dug up the graves of the Omayyad caliphs including Mu’awiya ibn Abu Sufyan and burned their bones. It is interesting to note that on opening the grave of the accursed Yazid, the perpetrator of the tragedy of Karbala, nothing was found in the grave except a burnt thighbone and ashes, as if divine wrath had already struck the killer of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husain (AS).
1197 lunar years ago, on this day 241 AH, the prominent Sunni jurisprudent Ahmad Ibn Mohammad ibn Hanbal ash-Shaybani, passed away at the age of 77. Born in Baghdad to an officer of Abbasid regime serving in Khorasan, his principal teacher was the jurisprudent Mohammad Ibn Idris Shafei. Ibn Hanbal’s famous work is "Musnad”, which among other hadith contains several narrations on the unsurpassed merits of the Infallible Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Out of fear of the Abbasid regime, he did not meet Imam Mohammad at-Taqi (AS) and Imam Ali an-Naqi (AS) – the 9th and 10th Heirs of the Prophet.
1142 lunar years ago, on this day in 296 AH, Abdullah ibn Mu'taz was murdered at the age of 48 after a reign of a single day and night as caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. He was installed by a faction of the powerful Turkic slave guards following the death of al-Muktafi, the 17th self-styled Abbasid caliph, and then deposed the next day by the vizier. He went into hiding, was found, and strangled to death by a servant of his relative, the 13-year old al-Muqtadir, who was now installed as caliph. Abdullah lived a hedonistic life, writing poetry devoted to the pleasures of the immoral life he led. He was a son of Mu'taz, the 13th self-styled caliph, who during his brief 3-year reign – before being deposed, brutally beaten and murdered by the Turkic guards – martyred Imam Ali an-Naqi (AS), the 10th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Like the rest of the clan, Abdullah ibn Mu'taz was also notorious for his enmity towards the Prophet's blessed Ahl al-Bayt. He wrote an ode in praise of what he viewed as merits of the tyrannical and immoral Abbasids over the rest of the Bani Hashem. These superficial verses on the forged merits of the Abbasid usurpers was given a fitting answer in a brilliant piece of versified eulogy by the poet and scholar Ali ibn Mohammad at-Tannoukhi, who points to the God-endowed merits of the Ahl al-Bayt, whose virtues are praised in the holy Qur'an and Hadith.
1128 solar years ago, on this day in 889 AD, Abdur-Rahman III, the Omayyad Emir of Cordoba, and the first self-styled caliph of Spain, was born to a Christian concubine, while his father's mother was also a Christian concubine. He succeeded his grandfather, Abdullah, and broke all allegiance with the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. During his 49-year rule until his death at the age of 72, his legitimacy was under serious question as a result of the bid by the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Dynasty of North Africa to expand its sphere of influence in Spain, where Muslims considered the Omayyads as usurpers and the descendents of the Prophet more worthy of governance. In order to check the Fatemids, he signed a treaty with the Christian ruler of Leon, Ordono III, and backed the Maghrawa Berber rebels in Northwest Africa. Instead of confronting the European Christian rebels who were slowly encroaching upon the northern territories of Islamic Spain, he devoted his time and energy to creating inter-Muslim rivalries, as was evident by his support for the Idrisids, which was also a Shi'ite Muslim Dynasty of what is now Morocco. Abdur-Rahman's efforts were brought to naught in 958, after a decisive Fatemid victory that ended for good any Omayyad influence in North Africa.
692 solar years ago, on this day in 1325 AD, Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, was built by one of the Aztec kings before the European invaders set foot on American soil. The Aztecs were indigenous Amerindian tribes, which settled in Mexico in the 12th century and ruled the region until early 16th century. They were an agrarian people and developed industries as well. They invented pictograph and attained significant achievements in different scientific fields. But as of the 16th century, the Spanish colonialists infiltrated their land, destroyed the Aztec civilization and almost exterminated the whole race. During this period, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards settled in Mexico, and now form the ruling class while the native Mexicans are still suppressed.
264 solar years ago, on this day in 1753 AD, Hans Sloane, British physician, naturalist and collector of books, manuscripts and curios, that formed the basis for the British Museum in London, died, leavings one of the world's largest and most varied collections of natural history specimens. His passion for the collection and his concern for its future upkeep after his death led him to write a will which clearly stated that it must "remain together and not be separated." He offered it to the British nation, requesting in return a sum of £20,000 for his heirs, which the Parliament accepted, and thus the British Museum was created and eventually its sister institution, the British Museum of Natural History.
138 solar years ago, on this day in 1879 AS, the Anglo-Zulu War began, and lasted almost six months at the end of which the British annexed the Zulu kingdom to their dominion of South Africa, massacring a large number of natives and destroying their homes and hearths.
113 solar years ago, on this day in 1904 AD, British occupation troops massacred 1,000 dervishes in Somaliland, which although the northern part of the Republic of Somalia, is today a self-declared independent state which no country or organization has recognized.
111 solar years ago, on this day in 1906 AD, Mozaffar od-Din Shahe Qajar, was forced to issue the decree for establishment of the first official Court of Justice in Iran with its branches throughout the country, following public pressure spear-headed by the ulema on the dictatorial Qajarid Dynasty. The Court of Justice was first proposed by Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabaie, who along with Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani had staged the month-long sit-in protest at the shrine in Rayy of Seyyed Abdul-Azim Hassani (peace upon him), with the support of several thousand people of Tehran.
82 solar years ago, on this day in 1935 AD, the great scholar and renowned orator, Seyyed Abu’l-Qassim Dehkordi, passed away in Isfahan at the age of 79. After initial studies in Isfahan, he left for Iraq to complete his higher religious studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf. On his return to Iran, he took up residence in Isfahan where he groomed at least 300 scholars.  His discourses from the pulpit would draw in large crowds. He wrote several books including "Jannat al-Maawa” on ethics, and annotation of Fayz Kashani’s "Tafsir Saafi” on ayahs of the holy Qur’an.
38 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, during the most sensitive phase of Iran’s Islamic Movement, when the US was making feverish efforts to maintain in power the British-installed Pahlavi regime, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), ordered formation of the Revolutionary Council. Its main duties were to coordinate the struggles of the people against the Shah and to set the stage for formation of the interim government after the regime's downfall. Imam Khomeini emphasized not just the ouster of the Shah, but establishment of the holy Islamic system for guaranteeing the freedom of the people, independence of Iran, and administration of social justice. After the Shah’s ouster, the Revolutionary Council also acted as a lawmaking body until the formation of the elected Majlis (parliament).
25 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, following the resounding victory of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the elections, President Shazli bin Jadid, resigned. In 1988, after wide-scale unrests, he had pledged reforms and revision of the Constitution, to permit political parties to operate. This enabled FIS to publicly announce its existence in September 1989. It managed to attract hundreds of thousands of members. In June 1990, FIS victory in the local elections ended the monopoly of the ruling Algerian National Liberation Front, which was in power for thirty years. In the wake of public strikes in May and June 1991, President Shazli bin Jadid was forced to hold legislative elections. The landslide victory of FIS in the parliamentary polls of December 1991 deeply worried France – the former colonial power – which ordered Algerian generals to annul the results and force the resignation of Bin Jadid.
20 solar years ago, on this day in 1997AD, the great scholar Ayatollah Qodratollah Vajdani Fakhr passed away. During almost 40 years of teaching, he groomed thousands of students. He would travel around Iran and visit other countries during the annual seminary holidays to enlighten people on the ethereal teaching of Islam. As a disciple of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), he stood beside the Iranian people against the oppression of the Pahlavi regime. He authored several books such as "Ethical Norms in Islam” and the 16-volume "al-Fakhriyya” on jurisprudence.
7 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Mas’oud Ali Mohammadi, Iran’s nuclear physics professor was martyred when a bomb-rigged motorcycle blew up outside his home in Tehran. The assassins were hirelings of the US and the illegal Zionist entity. The next year, on his capture and subsequent trial, one of the principal assassins, Majid Jamali Fashi confessed that he was an operative of Mossad and had visited the usurper state of Israel.
3 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, notorious Zionist terrorist, Ariel Sharon, known as the "Butcher of Beirut”, plunged into the bowels of hell after languishing in coma for eight year as a result of divine wrath that struck him on January 5, 2006, for his crimes against humanity. A Lithuanian Jew having no connections to Palestine, he was the son of illegal migrants to this Muslim land and was named Ariel Sheinerman. During British mandate over Palestine, he was active since his early teens in the Gadna and Haganah terrorist outfits. He has shamelessly admitted in his biography, how he and his Zionist-comrades-in crime would terrorize Palestinian villages, attack bridges and bases, and ambush traffic between Arab villages. With the illegal birth of Israel in 1948, he joined the army, changed his surname to Sharon, and rose rapidly in ranks because of his cold-blooded killings of Palestinian people – both Muslims and Christians. As war minister in 1982, he was physically present in south Lebanon and ordered the Phalangist Christian militia to massacre over 5,000 Palestinian women, children and elderly men in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. On 28th September 2000 he desecrated the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Mosque by entering it with boots. The next year he became prime minster of a coalition cabinet. An avowed enemy of Islam, he was the first Zionist premier to visit India in 2005, and proposed a tripartite alliance with the BJP government and the US for terrorizing Muslims worldwide.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)