Today is Sunday; 9th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1400 solar hijri; corresponding to 18th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1442 lunar hijri; and May 30, 2021, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1074 lunar years ago, on this day in 368 AH, the pleasure-seeking Ezz od-Dowla Daylami, son of Moiz od-Dowla the Buwaihid conqueror of Baghdad, was killed in battle with his cousin, Adhud od-Dowla, the son of Rukn od-Dowla, near the River Tigris after rebelling against the central authority of the then Shiraz-based Buwaihid confederacy. Adhud od-Dowla, a few years later after the passing away of his father, became the senior-most Buwaihid Amir of Iraq and Fars, at a time when Baghdad was wracked by violence and instability. He restored peace and patronized scholars such as the celebrated Shaikh Mufid, besides renovating the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala. In addition, he is credited with sponsoring several scientific projects. An observatory was built by him in Isfahan, and the dam known till this day as “Band-e Amir” was built on his orders between Shiraz and Istakhr to irrigate some 300 villages in Fars Province. Among his other constructions was the digging of the Haffar Canal joining the Karun River to the Arvand Roud at the confluence of the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The port of Khorramshahr is built on the Haffar, at its joining point with the Arvand Roud. He embellished Baghdad with numerous public buildings including the famous public hospital known as “Bimaristan-e Adhudi”, where the great Iranian physician Zakariyya Razi used to practice. It is worth noting that the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), had centuries earlier prophesied the coming to power of the Iranian Buwaihid Dynasty and the death of one cousin at the hands of the other with the words: “The licentious son of the one-handed will be killed by his cousin, beside the Tigris.” The reference one-handed is to Moiz od-Dowla who had lost one of his hands in a battle.
844 lunar years ago, on this day in 598 AH, the prominent theologian, Mohammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Hilli, passed away at the age of 55. Born in the Iraqi city of Hillah, he was a child prodigy and became a prominent theologian at a fairly young age. He believed that selecting the right path is the duty of every sane and grown up person, and anyone who does not make use of this blessing of the intellect has committed a self-destructive blunder. Among the valuable books written by this great Islamic scholar is “as-Sara’er”.
769 solar years ago, on this day in 1252 AD, Ferdinand III of Castile died at the age 53 after a reign of 35 years during which he occupied one by one the Spanish Muslim cities of Badajoz, Merida, Cazorla, Ubeda, the old capital Cordoba (Qurtuba), Huelva, Murcia, Cartagena and finally Seville (Ishbiliya) the greatest of Spanish Muslim cities. Some other regions he kept as vassal states under Muslim governors, while in areas directly under his rule, Christian rule was heavy-handed on the new Muslim subjects. This eventually led to the Mudejar Uprisings of 1264-66, which resulted in mass expulsions of Spanish Muslim populations from their homeland. Ferdinand III was buried in the Mosque turned Cathedral of Seville and his tomb is inscribed in four languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and an early version of Castilian Spanish.
598 solar years ago, on this day in 1423 AD, Austrian mathematician and astronomer, Georg von Peurbach, was born near Linz. He studied the Islamic scientist, Ibn Haytham’s book “On the Configuration of the World”, and replaced the Greek scientist Ptolemy’s chords in the table of sines with the Islamic Arabic numerals that were introduced 250 years earlier in place of Roman numerals and which today are in use in the whole world (e.g. 1,2,3,4,5 etc).
590 solar years ago, on this day in 1431 AD, during the Hundred Years War the 19-year-old Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal in Rouen, France. The Roman Catholic Church marks this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc, the French national heroine, known as Jeanne d’Arc. Also called the Maid of Orleans, she started her uprising for the liberation of parts of French territory from the occupation of England. She led the French army to several important victories, paving the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English in exchange for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais for charges of insubordination and heterodoxy, and burned as a heretic.
428 solar years ago, on this day in 1593 AD, English poet and dramatist, Christopher Marlowe, was reportedly stabbed to death. It was later speculated that his death was faked and that he fled to Italy and continued writing plays that were produced by William Shakespeare. The mystery has never been solved. Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his day. He greatly influenced William Shakespeare. Among his plays are: “Dido, Queen of Carthage”, “Tamburlaine” in two parts on the fearsome Turkic conqueror Amir Timur, “The Jew of Malta”, “Doctor Faustus” and the “The Massacre at Paris”.
386 solar years ago, on this day in 1635 AD, the Thirty Years War ended with the signing of the Peace of Prague. It was principally fought in Central Europe, involving most of the countries of Europe that were once part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, and one of the longest continuous wars in modern history. Initially, religion was a motivation for war between Protestant and Catholic states. In this general phase, the war became less specifically religious and more a continuation of the Bourbon–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence, leading in turn to further warfare between France and the German powers. A major consequence of the Thirty Years’ War was the devastation of entire regions, denuded by the foraging armies. Famine and disease significantly decreased the population of the German states, while Italy and most of the combatant powers were bankrupted. The result was the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
243 solar years ago, on this day in 1778 AD, French philosopher, François Voltaire, died at the age of 83. He popularized the English scientist Isaac Newton’s work in France by arranging a translation of “Principia Mathematica” to which he added his own commentary. Voltaire’s commentary bridged the gap between non-scientists and Newton’s ideas at a time in France when the pre-Newtonian views of Descartes were still prevalent. Although a philosopher, Voltaire advocated rational analysis. He died on the eve of the French Revolution.
187 lunar years ago, on this day in 1254 AH, the well-known Islamic scholar and theologian, Mohaddith Mirza Hussain Noori, was born in the northern Iranian city of Nour in Mazandaran. Following the completion of his preliminary studies, he strove to scrutinize the vast hadith literature and became an authority in this regard. He is the author of several valuable books, including “an-Najm ath-Thaqeb” on the Imam of the Age, and the encyclopedic work in over twenty volumes titled, “Mustadrik Wasa’el ash-Shi’a”. He was the teacher of Shaikh Abbas Qomi, the compiler of the prayer-supplication manual, “Mafatih al-Jenan” or Keys to Paradise.
159 solar years ago, on this day in 1862 AD, Azarbaijani philosopher and renowned poet of the Caucasus region, Mirza Ali Akbar Zain al-Abedin Taherzadeh, known by his penname Saber, was born in the city of Shervan in what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan, which before the Russian occupation in the first half of 19th century was an integral part of Iran. He was fluent with the Azeri, Persian, Arabic, and Russian languages, and wrote many ghazals in imitations of Persian poets, particularly Nizami Ganjavi. In 1885, he embarked on a tour of several cities of Iran and Central Asia. Political satire was an important part of his work, and the butt of his satire ranged from Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany to Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar of Iran, and from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid to the defeat of Russian armies by Japan as well as the scenes of social and domestic life at home. Part of Saber’s life coincided with the Constitutional Revolution in Iran and his vibrant and biting political satire was recited by the Constitutionalists in the trenches of Tabriz. He also made a fine verse translation of some passages of Ferdowsi’s “Shahnama” into Azeri. Many of Saber’s poems are in admiration of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt.
109 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, US inventor and aviator, Wilbur Wright, with his brother Orville, invented the first powered airplane, Flyer, capable of sustained, controlled flight (17 Dec 1903), died at the age of 45. Orville made the first flight, airborne for 12 seconds. Wilbur took the second flight, covering 853-ft (260-m) in 59 seconds. By 1905, they had improved the design, built and made several long flights in Flyer III, which was the first fully practical airplane (1905), able to fly up to 38-min and travel 24 miles (39-km). Their Model A was produced in 1908, capable of flight for over two hours of flight. The history of aviation is as old as Man’s quest to fly since antiquity. The earliest known record are of kite flying from China around 200 BC, when a general flew a kite over enemy territory to calculate the length of tunnel required to enter the region. It is also said, Yuan Huangtou, a Chinese prince, was briefly airborne by tying himself to a kite. In the heyday of Islamic science and civilization, there are records pertaining to the Spanish Muslim polymath, Abbas ibn Firnas, who flew from Jabal al-Arus Hill by employing a rudimentary glider in the 9th century AD. Some six centuries after Ibn Firnas, the Italian Leonardo da Vinci developed a hang glider design in which the inner parts of the wings are fixed, and some control surfaces are provided towards the tips (as in the gliding flight in birds). In 1783, with the first successful floating of a balloon with a person on board, the aviation industry was born and led to the invention of the airship, the zeppelin and the modern aircraft.
108 solar years ago, on this day in 1913 AD, the First Balkans War ended with the Treaty of London, and the emergence of Albania as an independent nation. It began in October 1912, and pitted the Balkans League, made up of Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria, against the weakened Ottoman Empire. As a result, almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were seized by Christian powers and partitioned among them.
97 solar years ago, on this day in 1924 AD, the Iranian physician and lexicographer, Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Nafisi, titled “Nazem ol-Atibba”, passed away in Tehran. He was a product of Tehran’s famous Dar al-Fonoun Academy. In addition to his services to medicine, he also served the cause of Persian language. His important work in this domain is the 5-volume lexicon “Farhang-e Nafisi”, which took him 25 years to compile.
91 solar years ago, on this day in 1930 AD, the prominent poet and religious scholar, Seyyed Ahmad Peshawari, known as “Adib Peshawari”, passed away in Tehran. He was born near Peshawar in what is now Pakistan. He came to Iran to attend the classes of Islamic scholars such as Mullah Hadi Sabzevari. He also studied literary and philosophical books and wrote Persian poetry. His firm faith in Islam and indifference toward worldly matters are clearly evident in his poems. He has a Divan of poetry in Persian language.
74 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, the jurist Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Qazi Tabatabaei, passed away at the age of 78 in his hometown Tabriz, northwestern Iran, after forty years of scholarly pursuits, preaching and grooming of students. A product of the famous seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, where he studied for 13 years under the leading scholars such as Mirza Hassan Shirazi, Seyyed Kazem Yazdi and Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, attained the status of Ijtehad, he authored several books including “Makhzan al-Fawa’ed fi Hashiyat-al-Fara’ed”. His equally worthy son Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Ali Qazi Tabatabaei, became the first prayer leader in Iran to be martyred in the prayer niche in 1979 following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution.
61 solar years ago, on this day in 1960 AD, Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator, died at the age of 70. His first book of poems “My Sister, Life” (published in 1917), is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language. Outside Russia, he is best known as the author of “Doctor Zhivago”, a novel written in 1957 and turned into a famous Hollywood film on a story that takes place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the First World War.
40 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, President Zia ur-Rahman of Bangladesh was assassinated. A highly decorated officer of the united Pakistan army, he organized Bengali resistance against the brutal crackdown on what was then East Pakistan by the Pashtun-Punjabi army units of West Pakistan. Later he had the honour of announcing the Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh on 26 March 1971 at Kalurghat, Chittagong, and the next day repeated an edited version of the declaration on behalf of independence leader, Sheikh Mujib ur-Rahman – who was killed in a coup in 1975. On 21 April 1977, Major-General Zia ur-Rahman as Chief of Staff of the armed forces, took charge of the government, following Justice Sayem’s resignation, and later in 1977 became the seventh President of Bangladesh. He issued a proclamation order amending the secular constitution drafted by Mujib ur-Rahman, by increasing the direct influence and role of Islam in state affairs. In the preamble, he inserted the salutation “Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim” (In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful). In Article 8(1) and 8(1A) the statement “absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah” was added, replacing the commitment to secularism. He further introduced provisions to allow Muslims to practice the social and legal injunctions of the Shari’ah and Sunnah. In Article 25(2), he introduced the principle that “the state shall endeavor to consolidate, preserve and strengthen fraternal relations among Muslim countries based on Islamic solidarity.” Islamic religious education was introduced as a compulsory subject in Bangladeshi schools, with provisions for non-Muslim students to learn of their own religions. He established a multiparty system, and also reached out to the hill tribes, the Hindu and Buddhist religious minorities, and the Urdu-speaking Bihari Muslim ethnic minority.