Today is Monday, 1st of the Iranian month of Aban 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 3rd of the Islamic month of Safar 1439 lunar hijri; and October 23, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1382 lunar years ago, on this day in 57 AH, according to a narration, is the birth anniversary of Imam Mohammad al-Baqer (AS), the 5th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Medina, he was present in Karbala as a four-year old boy and was witness to the tragic martyrdom of his grandfather, Imam Husain (AS). In the aftermath of the tragedy he was imprisoned by the Omayyads, along with his parents and the rest of the womenfolk and children of the Prophet's progeny. His father was Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) while his mother Fatema (SA) was the daughter of the Prophet's elder grandson, Imam Hasan al-Mojtaba (AS), which means he was descended on both sides from the Prophet. During his 19-year Imamate, he strove to spread the genuine teachings of Islam and the pure and pristine practice (Sunnah) and behaviour (Seerah) of the Prophet. In fact, his epithet "Baqer al-Uloum” (Splitter and Spreader of Sciences) was foretold by the Prophet himself through the prominent Sahabi, Jaber Ibn Abdullah al-Ansari, who lived until the time of the 5th Imam’s childhood and conveyed to him the Messenger of Islam’s message. In addition to the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt, Sunni Muslims have also narrated hadith on his authority. Before his martyrdom at the age of 57 as a result of poisoning by the Omayyad caliph, Hesham ibn Abdul-Malik, he opened many vistas of knowledge, which were taken to new heights by his son and successor, Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS).
1231 lunar years ago, on this day in 208 AH, according to a narration. Seyyeda Nafisah, the great granddaughter of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) – the elder grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) – and daughter-in-law of the Prophet’s 6th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), passed away while engrossed in the recitation of holy Qur’an at the age of 63 in Fustat near what is now Cairo in Egypt. She was laid to rest in that city when husband Ishaq al-Mo’tamen saw the Prophet in his dream, instructing him not to take the body to homeland Hijaz for burial in Medina, as planned. She was a very pious and God-fearing lady, in contrast to her unprincipled father, Hassan al-Anwar (son of ibn Zayd al-Ablaj), who contrary to the ways of the Ahl al-Bayt, had sided with the usurper Abbasid regime against his own kinsmen, serving as governor of Medina during the tyrant Mansour Dawaniqi’s caliphate and opposing the marriage of Nafisah to Ishaq. Her husband was noted for his piety, knowledge, and reliability in narrating hadith, for which he had earned the epithet "al-Mo’tamen” or trustworthy. He was witness to the last will written by his brother Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) to son, Imam Ali ar-Reza (AS). Nafisah, who was the mother of two children – a son and daughter – came to Egypt in 193 AH after visiting Damascus to perform pilgrimage to the shrine of her great grand aunt, the Prophet’s granddaughter Hazrat Zainab (SA). The Egyptian people warmly welcomed her and entreated her to stay in Cairo, where, during her 15-year stay, she used to hold classes of Qur’an and hadith, attended among others at various times by the Mystic Dhun-Noon al-Misri, Bishr bin Hareth al-Haafi of Baghdad – who was guided to the right path by Imam Kazem (AS), and two jurists who later founded their respective schools of jurisprudence, Mohammad bin Idris ash-Shafei, Ahmad bin Mohammad bin Hanbal. It has been mentioned that Nafisah performed the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca on thirty occasions, due to her miraculous powers she cured the ill and saved Egyptians and the River Nile from drought. She was mother of Seyyed Qasim and Seyyedah Omm Kolthoum, while her equally pious niece, Seyyedah Zainab (daughter of her brother Seyyed Yahya), also has a much-visited shrine in Cairo, which some people wrongly think to be the resting place of the Heroine of Karbala, Hazrat Zainab (SA). The shrine of Seyyeda Nafisah is among the most visited pilgrimage centres in Egypt. On Sundays and Thursdays, thousands of people visit her shrine. It is also a custom to hold wedding ceremonies in her mausoleum. Another account says she passed away on the 1st of Ramadhan the same year. Each year on the birth anniversary of Hazrat Nafisa on the 11th of Rabi al-Awwal, ceremonies are held in Egypt.
1126 solar years ago, on this day in 891 AD, the famous Greek Muslim admiral, Damian of Tarsus, known by his Islamic name of Ghulam Yazman al-Khadim, died during the siege of the Byzantine fortress of Salandu in what is now southwestern Turkey, as a result of a catapult wound. His troops carried him to his seat of power Tarsus, and buried him there. According to the historian al-Mas'udi, his fame was such that he was among the ten illustrious Muslims whose portraits were hung in Byzantine churches in recognition of their valour. For a decade he was a thorn in the Greek side, and won several land and sea battles against the Christians, sometimes in alliance with another valourous Greek convert to Islam, Cleo or Rasheeq al-Wardami, who is famous for besieging the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, and briefly taking over Thessalonica, the second largest city.
1106 lunar years ago, on this day in 333 AH, al-Muttaqi-Billah, the 21st self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, was deposed and blinded after a rule of four years by the Turkic general, Tuzun, who replaced him on the same day with a cousin called al-Mustakfi. The caliphate or political rule of the Islamic state that was snatched from its rightful inheritor, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (AS), at the scandalous gathering of Saqifa Bani Sa'da, by a group of Sahaba – recent converts from years of idolatry – no sooner did Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) leave the mortal world, had become so insignificant after the tyrannically un-Islamic rule of the Omayyads and the early Abbasids, that it now depended on the whims of the neo-Muslim Turkic slave guards who played havoc in Baghdad. Iran and the east were long gone; Egypt and Africa had been lost to the Fatemids, Arabia and Yemen were held by the Carmathians and local chieftains, Syria and Palestine were no longer under the caliphate, and even in Iraq there were revolts in Basra and Waset, while Mosul had become independent. In northern Syria and Anatolia, the Byzantine attempts to advance were being thwarted only because of the bravery of the Hamdanid Shi'ite Muslim dynasty whose protection Muttaqi-Billah sought on becoming caliph. Naser od-Dowla Hamdani saw this as an opportunity to add all of Iraq to his realm and marched along with the caliph, but because of the well-organized opposition of the Turkic forces in Baghdad he found it difficult to control the city. The caliph after wondering from city to city finally threw himself at the mercy of Tuzun, who soon broke his promises and deposed, blinded and replaced him with another puppet.
1034 lunar years ago, on this day in 405 AH, the prominent Iranian Sunni Muslim compiler of hadith, Mohammad Ibn Abdullah, Hakem an-Naishapuri, passed away in his native Khorasan at the age 81. His famous book is "Mustadrek ala as-Sahihayn" in five volumes, which is a supplement to the two principal books of Sunni hadith, the "Sahih Bukhari" and the "Sahih Muslim" – also compiled by Iranians born in families of converts from Zoroastrianism to Islam. On the basis of the criteria set by the two books, Hakem has collected thousands of hadith that Bukhari and Muslim had failed to locate, including many pertaining to the unparalleled merits of Imam Ali (AS), and the Ahl al-Bayt. He authored several books including on the History of the Ulema of his hometown Naishapur, the Benefits of the People of Khorasan, and "Tarajem al-Musnad ala Shart as-Sahihayn” (Reports of Ibn Hanbal’s Musnad that Match the Criteria of the Two Sahih Books).
931 solar years ago, on this day in 1086 AD, at the Battle of az-Zallaqah in Islamic Spain, a Muslim army led by the Almoravid general, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, defeated the Christian forces of Castile's King Alfonso VI, when the latter refused both the offers to avoid bloodshed that is, convert to Islam, or to pay tribute. The reason for the battle was Alfonso's occupying of the Muslim city of Toledo a year earlier followed by his invasion of the emirate of Zaragoza. The Spanish Muslims appealed to Yusuf ibn Tashfin of Morocco for help, and he responded, forcing Alfonso to lift the siege of Zaragoza. The Almoravid ruler returned to North Africa after his decisive victory, which created fear among the Christians for several generations.
883 solar years ago, on this day in 1134 AD, Spanish Muslim polymath, Abu’s-Salt al-Andalusi, passed away at the age of 66 in Bejaia, Algeria. Born in Denia in eastern Spain on the Mediterranean coast, and known in Latin as Albuzale, he studied under al-Waqqashi in Toledo, and upon completing his mathematical education in Seville, he set out with his family in 1096 for Egypt. In Cairo he entered the service of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’a Muslim ruler, Ma’add al-Mustan?ir-Billah, and the vizier al-Afdhal Shahanshah. His service continued until 1108. In 1112, Abu’s-Salt left for Kairouan in Tunisia, where he entered the service of the Zirids of Ifriqiya. He also occasionally traveled to Palermo and worked in the court of Roger I of Sicily as a visiting physician. He also sent poems to the Palermitan poet Abu’l-Dhaw. His works on astronomical instruments were read both in the Islamic world and Europe. He also worked as a teacher of alchemy, and wrote treatises on medicine, philosophy, music, and history. He became well known in Europe through translations of his works made in the Iberian Peninsula and in southern France. He is also credited with introducing Andalusian music to Tunis, which later led to the development of the Tunisian ma'luf. Abu’s-Salt wrote an encyclopedic work of many scientific disciplines titled "Kitab al-Kafi fi’l-Uloum”. Among his other works are "Risala fi’ll-Amal bi’l-Astrulab” (On the Construction and Use of the Astrolabe), "?ifat Amal Safi?a Jame’a Taqawwama bi-ha Jame al-Kawakeb as-Sab’a” (Description of the Construction and Use of a Single Plate with which the totality of the Motions of the Seven Planets), and "Kitab al-Wajiz fi’l-Ilm al-Hay’a” (Brief treatise on Cosmology).
200 solar years ago, on this day in 1817 AD, Pierre Larousse, French lexicographer and author was born. After years of study, he compiled the Larousse Lexicon. Pierre Larousse passed away at the age of 58.
184 solar years ago, on this day in 1834 AD, Fath-Ali Shah, the second king of the Qajarid Dynasty of Iran, died, and was succeeded by his grandson, Mohammad Shah, the son of the deceased crown prince, Abbas Mirza, who had died a year earlier. Son of Hussain Qoli Khan, the brother of Agha Mohammad Khan, the founder of the dynasty, Fath-Ali Shah was governor of Fars before succeeding his childless uncle. Much of his 37-year long reign that saw the gradual loss of vast areas of Iran in the Caucasus, Khorasan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, was marked by the resurgence of Persian arts and painting, as well as a deeply elaborate court culture. He led a life of luxury oblivious of the poverty of the people and the political humiliation to Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as a result of the Russian-imposed Golestan and Turkmanchai Treaties, coupled with growing British pressures and encroachments. His successor, Mohammad Shah ruled for 14 years and died in 1848 at the age of 40, leaving his 13-year minor son, Nasser od-Din Shah, as the next king.
105 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, the Battle of Kumanovo, which resulted in a victory of Serb rebels over the Ottoman army in the Kosovo Vilayet, occurred shortly after start of the First Balkan War. After this defeat, the Turkish army abandoned the major part of the region, suffering heavy losses in manpower (mostly due to desertions) and in war material.
75 solar years ago, on this day in 1942 AD, during World War II, the Battle of al-Alamein, in the city of the same name in northern Egypt, occurred between the British and German troops. The British were led by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and the Germans by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The Germans were defeated, but war between the two countries continued in other regions of North Africa until the final Nazi defeat.
61 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, the uprising in Hungry against the domination by the Soviet Union commenced three years after dissolution of the Hungarian Communist Party by nationalist Premier, Imre Nagy, who tried to make his country independent of Moscow. The Soviets crushed the uprising by arming and financially assisting the communists, who along with the Red Army slaughtered a large number of people. Most of Hungary was part of the Ottoman Empire from the decisive Muslim victory in 1526 at the Battle of Mohacs till 1718, when the Turks withdrew.
40 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Khomeini, the elder son of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), was martyred in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq by agents of Iran's Pahlavi regime, at the age of 47. He was born in the holy city of Qom, where he mastered Islamic sciences and reached the level of Ijtehad at the young age of 27. For ten years he lectured at the Najaf Islamic Seminary, and was always alongside his father in the struggle against the despotic Shah’s regime. His martyrdom accelerated the pace of struggles of the Iranian people and led to the victory of the Islamic Revolution a year and four months later.
34 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, in an anti-terrorist operation by martyrdom-seeking Lebanese Muslims against occupation forces in Beirut, 241 American and 58 French soldiers were killed. The US, French, British, and Italian occupation forces had entered Beirut to tilt the balance in favour of the Christian Phalangist militia in the Lebanese civil war, as well as to support the occupation of parts of Lebanon by the illegal Zionist entity, Israel. This heroic act forced the occupiers to pull out troops from Lebanon.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)