This Day in History

(August 27, 2015)

Date: 26 August 2015 - 22:05

News ID: ۱۷۶۴۳

Today is Thursday; 5th of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1394 solar hijri; corresponding to 12th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Qa’dah 1436 lunar hijri; and August 27, 2015, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2494 solar years ago, on this day in 479 BC, Persian forces led by Mardonius, the Iranian governor of Greece and Macedonia, who was the son-in-law of Emperor Darius 1, were routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea, which marked a turning point in the Greek-Persian Wars. The battle was fought near the city of Plataea in the Peloponnese Peninsula, between an alliance of Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, against the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I. The previous year the Iranian army, led by the emperor in person, had scored victories at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium and conquered Thessaly, Boeotia and Attica. However, at Salamis, the allied Greek navy won an unlikely victory, preventing the conquest of the Peloponnesus. Xerxes then returned to Iran with much of his army, leaving his brother-in-law, General Mardonius, to finish off the Greeks the following year. It is said that the rashness of Mardonius was the cause of the loss of the battle and his own loss of life, despite the fact that in the past twenty years he had been a key element of Iranian domination over the Greeks.
1685 solar years ago, on this day in 330 AD, Constantinople was founded by Emperor Constantine 1 as the new capital of the Roman Empire at the ancient town of Byzantium. The city was built on seven hills on the Sea of Marmara overlooking Asia Minor, and was an impregnable fortress. For over a thousand years, it was the seat of Christianity, until its conquest in 1453 by the Ottoman Emperor, Sultan Mohammad al-Fateh, who changed its name to Islambol and made it the capital of his empire that straddled Europe and Asia – with parts of Africa added in the subsequent century. Popularly called Istanbul, it was the Ottoman capital till 1923, and is Turkey's most important and populous city today, spanning both the European and Asian sides of the Bosporus Strait.
1266 solar years ago, on this day in 749 AD, the Abbasid general Qahtaba Ibn Shabib-at-Ta'i, who played a leading role against the uprooting of the Ommayad caliphate, died in battle near Kufa. He was a Khorasani, belonging to the Yemeni tribal confederation that formed the bulk of the local Muslim population. While on a visit to Mecca he met Ibrahim Ibn Mohammad Abbasi who appointed him military leader for the simmering anti-Ommayad uprising in Khorasan, where the popular sentiments of the Iranian people for the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) were being deceitfully exploited by the Abbasids for their own nefarious goals. This appointment was accepted by the main Abbasid leader and propagandist in Khorasan, the Iranian general, Behzadaan Pour-Vandaad, known as Abu Muslim Khorasani. Following the fall of Merv to the Khorasanis in February 748, Qahtaba took charge of the Abbasid forces that chased the Ommayad governor of Khorasan, Nasr ibn Sayyar. His army took Naishapur, where Nasr had sought refuge, defeated a 10,000-strong Ommayad force at Gorgan in August and subsequently took Rayy near modern Tehran. In March 749 he defeated a larger Ommayad army near Isfahan, and then captured Nahavand after a siege, before moving towards Iraq. Qahtaba's army advanced swiftly with the aim of taking Kufa, but was confronted by the Ommayad governor, Yazid ibn Hubayra. Qahtaba was able to launch a surprise night attack on the Ommayad camp, forcing Yazid and his troops to flee to Waset. Qahtaba lost his life in this battle, but his son Hassan assumed command and took possession of Kufa on September 2. Both Hassan and his brother, Humayd, were important military leaders in the early decades of the Abbasid regime. Humayd Ibn Qahtaba was given the estate of Sanabad by the Abbasids, and it was here that the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS), was laid to rest on his martyrdom through poisoning, and which place is now the sprawling holy shrine of Mashhad.
660 lunar years ago, on this day in 776 AH, the eminent scholar, Abu Ja'far Mohammad ibn Mohammad Buwayhi, popularly known as Qotb od-Din Razi, passed away in Damascus, Syria. Born in Varamin near Rayy in Iran, he was a student of the famous Allamah Hilli, and in turn was among the teachers of Shaikh Jamal od-Din, the First Martyr (Shaheed Awwal). Among his works mention could be made of "al-Mohkamaat", which is the author's judgment on a comparative study of the philosophical views of the Iranian religious philosophers, Khwaja Naseer od-Din Tousi and Fakhr od-Din Razi. His other works include, A Commentary (Sharh) on the "Shamsiyya" of Kateb Qazwini, "Sharh Matale’ al-Anwaar", and an Annotation (Hashiyya) on the "Qawa'ed al-Al-Ahkaam" of the famous Allamah Hilli.
481 solar years ago, on this day in 1534 AD, Ismail Adel Shah, the 2nd king of the dynasty of Iranian origin of Bijapur in southwest India, died at the age of 36 after a reign of 24 years, while on a campaign against the neighbouring sultanate of Golkandeh, ruled by the Qutb Shahi dynasty – also of Iranian origin. In the footsteps of his father, Yusuf Adel Shah, the founder of the dynasty who was from Saveh in Iran, he was a devout follower of the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). He patronized ulema, scholars, poets, physicians and even soldiers migrating from Iran to the Deccan. He never lost a battle, and his artillery units were considered formidable. The kingdom of Bijapur that lasted for 187 years until its annexation by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb of Hindustan (or northern subcontinent) was a Persianate state. It is worth noting that Yusuf Adel Shah had declared the Shi’a Islam as the state religion almost a decade before Shah Ismail I founded the Safavid Dynasty in Iran and decreed Shi’ite Islam as state religion.
245 solar years ago, on this day in 1770 AD, German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, was born. On the occupation of Germany by France in 1806, he was influenced by the characteristics of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Hegel divided history into several phases and believed that the course of history is determined by God. He wrote several books including "The Phenomenology of Spirit”, "Science of Logic”, and "Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences”. He died in 1831.
119 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, the shortest war in world history took place between Britain and Zanzibar, lasting only 40 minutes from 09:05 hours local time to 09:45 hours. The cause of the war was the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini two days earlier and the subsequent succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash. The British authorities preferred Hamoud bin Mohammed, who was more favourable to British interests, as sultan. I
92 lunar years ago, on this day in 1344 AH, the prominent Iranian poet, Adib Naishapouri, passed away at the age of 63. He went blind in childhood due to smallpox, but continued to learn sciences enthusiastically and after honing his skills in Arabic literature and other sciences of his era, he started to lecture these subjects. Gradually, he turned into a skilled poet. Selection of appropriate terms and precise meanings are the strong points of his poetry. His Diwan of poems consists of beautiful verses in Persian and Arabic.
70 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, the English oriental scholar, Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, died at the age of 77. He started as a language lecturer at Cambridge University, and conducted extensive research on Persian and Arabic literature. He was a great admirer of the acclaimed Iranian poet and mystic, Mowlana Jalal od-Din Rumi, whose famous "Mathnavi” he translated into English in several volumes, along with a detailed commentary – the result of his 25-year long research. Nicholson, as a teacher of the great poet-philosopher of the Subcontinent, Muhammad Iqbal Lahori, translated the latrer’s first philosophical Persian poetry book "Asrar-e Khudi” into English as "The Secrets of the Self”. He also wrote the book "A Literary History of the Arabs”. Another prominent student of Nicholson was Arthur John Arberry, an Arabic-Persian expert and a Rumi admirer, who completed an academic English translation of the holy Qur’an as well as translation of Iqbal’s long ode in Persian "The Javid-Namah”
52 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, the prominent Islamic scholar, political theorist, and brilliant mathematician of the Subcontinent, Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, who founded the Khaksaar Movement against British colonial rule, passed away at the age of 75 in Lahore, Pakistan. Born in Amritsar in undivided India in a prominent Rajput Muslim family influenced by such luminaries as Sir Seyyed Ahmad Khan of Aligarh and the famous Iranian pan-Islamicist, Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi, he showed a passion for mathematics from his childhood, and completed his Master's degree in mathematics from the University of Punjab at the young age of 19. He then proceeded to London for higher studies and excelled there as well. On his return to India, he declined the offer of the post of prime minister of the princely state of Alwar, preferring to join the education department and becoming Under Secretary to the Government of India in this sector in October 1917. In 1924, at the age of 36, he completed the first volume of his exegesis of the holy Qur’an in the light of science, titled "at-Tadhkirah” and was nominated for the Nobel Prize. In 1932 he resigned, settled down in Ichhra, Lahore, and devoted his time to the Khaksaar Movement which he had founded two years earlier. He played a role in directing the Muslims towards the independence of British India, for which he was repeatedly imprisoned. He brought out the Urdu weekly "al-Islah”, and after partition, continued his political activities in Pakistan, where he was imprisoned several times before death closed his chapter.
25 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, the prominent Iranian calligrapher, Ali Akbar Kaveh, passed away at the age of 98. Born in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, he was a student of such renowned masters as Mirza Taher Kateb, and Homayoun Hamedani. He was a member of Iran Calligraphy Association in Tehran for several years and groomed many students.
24 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, Moldova in Eastern Europe gained independence, after centuries of domination by Ukraine, the Ottoman Turks, Russia, Romania, Germany and the Soviet Union. It fell to the Soviets during World War 2 and was turned into a socialist republic. In the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union was breaking apart, certain currents in Moldova, called for union with Romania, but the Russian and Ukrainian minorities strongly rejected the call. Following a referendum in which the majority rejected merger with Romania, Moldova emerged as an independent country. Moldova covers an area of 33700 sq km, and shares borders with Romania and Ukraine.
9 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Iran test fired a new submarine-to-surface missile during military exercises in the Persian Gulf. The long-range missile, called "Thaqeb” or Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water's surface.
4 solar years ago, on this day in 2011AD, The Islamic Republic of Iran inaugurated a plant for producing carbon fiber, which it is banned from importing by the illegal sanctions imposed by the US through the UN.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)