This Day in History (May 17)

Date: 16 May 2018 - 20:47

News ID: ۵۳۰۲۹

Today is Thursday; 27th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 1st of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1439 lunar hijri; and May 17, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
Today marks the First Day of the blessed fasting month of Ramadhan – the month of revelation of the Holy Qur'an and the season of divine blessings. In description of the grandeur of this month, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny) has hailed its days and nights as the best days and nights of year, while calling on Muslims to benefit from the blessings of Ramadhan. The Night of Qadr marks the night that the Holy Qur'an was revealed. The martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet's 1st Infallible Successor, Imam Ali (AS) and the birth anniversary of his elder son, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the 2nd Infallible Imam, are the other important events of Ramadhan. We call on God Almighty to assist us to make use of the spiritual blessings of the fasting month of Ramadhan in the best possible manner.
1231 lunar years ago, on this day in 208 AH, the virtuous lady Seyyedah Nafisa passed away at the age of 63 in Fustat in what later became Cairo in Egypt, while engrossed in the recitation of the holy Qur’an. Daughter of Hassan al-Anwar and granddaughter of Zayd al-Ablaj, a son of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS) – the Prophet’s elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir – she was born in Medina and was the wife of Seyyed Ishaq al-Mo’tamen, a son of Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the Prophet’s 6th Infallible Heir. In 193 AH, she had visited Damascus, Syria, for pilgrimage to the shrine of the Heroine of Karbala, the Prophet’s granddaughter Harzat Zainab (peace upon her). Seyyedah Nafisa, like her husband, was considered an authority on Hadith, and people would flock to the classes that she held in Egypt for acquainting the people with the religious sciences of the Ahl al-Bayt. She performed the annual Hajj pilgrimage some thirty times and was known for her piety and miraculous powers that included curing the ill and saving Egyptians and the Nile River 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 (peace upon her). The shrine of Seyyedah Nafisa is among the most visited pilgrimage centres in Egypt. Today, especially on Sundays and Thursdays, thousands of people visit her shrine. It is also a custom to hold wedding ceremonies near there. Each year on the birth anniversary of Hazrat Nafisa on the 11th of Rabi al-Awwal, ceremonies are held in Egypt.
1072 solar years ago, on this day in 946 AD, al-Qa’em-be-Amrillah, the second self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Shi’a Muslim dynasty of Ifriqiya or what are now Tunisia, Algeria and Libya in northern Africa, died at the age 51 in Mahdiya in present day Tunisia after a 12-year reign, and was succeeded by his son, Ismail al-Mansur. Born in Salamiyah in Syria and named Abdur-Rahman by his father Abdullah who in 910 seized power in Ifriqiya and styled himself al-Mahdi-Billah in order to deceive the unsuspecting Berber Muslims, he led several unsuccessful campaigns into Abbasid Egypt from 914-to-921 that ended in heavy casualties. In 934, on the death of his father he became caliph after which he never again left the royal residence at Mahdia. In his reign, the Fatemid realm became an important power in the Mediterranean. After conquering Sicily, he carried out successful campaigns in the Byzantine province of Calabria and the southern coasts of Italy and France. But from 944 to 947 the realm was plunged into crisis by the revolt of the Kharejite or renegade from Abu Yazid, who led Berber tribes of the Aures Mountains of eastern Algeria. The Fatemids, who eventually conquered Egypt, founded the city of al-Qahera or Cairo, and occupied Syria and Hijaz, during their ruler of over two-and-a-half centuries, claimed descent from Ismail, the predeceased son of Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).
1011 lunar years ago, on this day in 428 AH, Abu Ali Hussain Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina, the prominent Iranian Islamic genius, who was a physician, mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer, passed away at the age of 58 in Hamedan. He had memorized the Holy Qur'an at a young age and then mastered logic, astronomy, and geometry, to such an extent that at the age of 18, he was considered an authority in most sciences of his day. Due to successful medical treatment of the Samanid King, Nouh ibn Mansour, he was allowed to use the royal library at Bukhara. He was a genius, who because of his political views and religious tendencies in favour of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), found himself persecuted by Sultan Mahmoud of Ghazna. Known as Avicenna to medieval Europe, his works were translated into Latin and for several centuries were taught at most western universities. Among his valuable books, mention can be made of the book: "Shafa” on philosophy; and "al-Qanoun fi't-Tibb” on medicine.
706 lunar years ago, on this day in 732 AH, the Muslim historian and historiographer, Abdur-Rahman ibn Mohammad Ibn Khaldun, was born in Tunis into an affluent Spanish Arab family that had settled in North Africa because of Christian onslaughts. He is regarded as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology, and economics. He travelled widely around Egypt, North Africa and Spain, where the Sultan of Granada, Mohammad VI, sent him on a mission to the Christian King of Castile, Pedro the Cruel. He returned to Egypt, whose Mamluk ruler sent him to negotiate with the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, during the siege of Damascus. In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun has written on his discussions with Timur, who asked him in detail about North Africa and Spain. Among his many works is a voluminous universal history, but his fame rests on the "Muqaddemah", which is considered a unique work. He died in Cairo in 808 AH at the age of 76 years.
478 solar years ago, on this day in 1540 AD, the Battle of Bilgram near the town of the same name in northern India led to the resounding defeat of Mughal Emperor, Naseer od-Din Humayun, by the Afghan warlord Sher Khan Suri, who now became the master of Delhi and Agra and assumed the title of Sher Shah. Humayun, who could not use his artillery during the surprise attack because of heavy rains, barely escaped with his life and became a fugitive, finally fleeing to Iran to the court of Shah Tahmasp Safavi. Later, with Iranian military help, he returned to the Subcontinent and on the death of Sher Shah reclaimed the throne of Delhi.
269 solar years ago, on this day in 1749 AD, English physician and surgeon, Edward Jenner, who discovered vaccination for smallpox, was born. There was a common story among farmers that if a person contracted a relatively mild and harmless disease of cattle called cowpox, immunity to smallpox would result. On 14 May 1796, he removed the fluid of cowpox from dairymaid Sarah Nelmes and inoculated James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy, who soon came down with cowpox. Six weeks later, he inoculated the boy with smallpox. The boy remained healthy, proving the theory. He called his method vaccination, using the Latin words "vacca”, meaning cow, and "vaccinia”, meaning cowpox. Jenner also introduced into English the word "virus”.
213 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, Albanian general, Mohammad Ali Pasha, who was dispatched to Egypt by the Ottoman Sultan, following the withdrawal of Napoleon Bonaparte and his occupying French forces in 1801, proclaimed himself the "Khedive” (Persian for Viceroy or Ruler) of Egypt and Sudan by eliminating all rivals. During his almost half-a-century rule he transformed Egypt into a regional power which he saw as the natural successor to the decaying Ottoman Empire. He initiated wide ranging reforms and established for the first time a professional bureaucracy. In the 1820s, he sent the first educational mission of Egyptian students to Europe. This contact resulted in the birth of literature that is considered the dawn of the Arabic literary renaissance, known as the "an-Nahdha”. To support the modernization of the industry and the military, Mohammad Ali set up a number of schools in various fields where French texts were studied. Rifa'a at-Tahtawi supervised translations from French to Arabic on topics ranging from sociology and history to military technology. In 1835, Mohammad Ali Pasha founded the first indigenous press in the Arab World, the Bulaq Press, which published the official gazette of the government. Bulaq also published rare old Arabic books, as well as Persian and Turkish. He pursued military campaigns initially on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmoud II, in Arabia and Greece (capturing Athens in 1827 before the combined attack of the British-French forced him to retreat). Later he came into open conflict with the Ottoman Empire, because of his personal ambitions, which brought Syria under his control for ten years and made him advance as far as Konya in 1832. He launched the expedition into the Hijaz to liberate the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from desert brigands of the Najd led by Abdullah ibn Saud, who followed the heretical Wahhabi cult and had desecrated the holy shrines. After purging Hijaz of the Wahhabis, he sent his son, Ibrahim Pasha, in 1812, to completely destroy and rout out the Aal-e Saud from Najd itself. After a two-year campaign, the Aal-e Saud clan was crushed and most of them captured. The leader, Abdullah ibn Saud, was sent to Istanbul, and executed for having desecrated the holy shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala, before his sacrilegious attack on the Hijaz. In short, Mohammad Ali Pasha established the dynasty that lasted till the military coup of 1952 and the ouster of King Farouq by General Mohammad Najib and Colonel Jamal Abd an-Nasser.
153 solar years ago, on this day in 1865 AD, in the presence of representatives of twenty countries in Paris and following the conclusion of first international contract in the domain of communications, the International Telegraph Union was founded and its international bylaw was prepared and approved. This day is thus named as International Communications Day. In 1932, according to decisions of the Madrid Conference, the International Telegraph Union was renamed International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and all its bylaws were reviewed. In 1947, ITU became a UN affiliate.
109 solar years ago, on this day in 1909 AD, Dutch orientalist, Michael Jan de Goeje, died at the age of 73 after half-a-century of research and publication of several valuable Arabic works of Islamic geographers and historiographers, such as Seyyed Mohammad al-Hasani al-Idrisi of Sicily, and the Iranians Abu’l-Qasim Ibn Khordadbeh and Abu Ja’far Tabari. Born in Dronrijp, Friesland, he devoted himself at an early age to the study of oriental languages and became especially proficient in Arabic. From 1860 to his death in 1909 he devoted himself to the edition – alone or in collaboration – of twenty Arabic texts, all with extensive indexes and Arabic-Latin glossaries. He also contributed to the work of other orientalists by careful proofreading and by revising books like William Wright’s "Grammar of the Arabic Language” and his edition of the "Re?la” or "Travels of Ibn Jobayr”. At the age of seventy-one, de Goeje accepted the editorship of the first edition of The Encyclopaedia of Islam but was soon forced to resign owing to ill health; he did not live to see the first volume in print.
79 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, the British occupation authorities of Palestine released a so-called White Paper on the threshold of World War II for illegally settling 100,000 more European Zionists, as a prelude to the planting of the usurper state of Israel. The Palestinians rejected the plan, which they sensed was a prelude for complete occupation of their homeland. In 1942, in a conference held in the US, European Zionists formally called for the establishment of a usurper Jewish state in Palestine called Israel.
31 solar years ago, on this day in 1987, during the 8-year war imposed by the US on Islamic Iran through Saddam, Iraqi jetfighters fired missiles at the US Warship "Stark” killing 37 American soldiers and wounding scores of others. The Ba'th minority regime of Baghdad immediately offered apology to the US, and Washington which was in league with Saddam against Iran, quickly responded by calling the attack and the death of its soldiers as a case of mistaken identity. Experts believe Iraq’s missile attack on the USS Stark and the death of US personnel was preplanned by both Washington and Baghdad to portray the Persian Gulf region as unsafe so as to enable the US send more warships for intimidating the Islamic Republic of Iran.
9 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, the prominent Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Bahjat Foumani, passed away in Holy Qom at the age of 94 years. He was born in the city of Fouman, Gilan Province, in northern Iran, and completed his preliminary studies in his hometown. After learning Arabic, he left for the seminary of Holy Najaf in Iraq in 1929 for higher studies. He returned to Iran in 1945, and settled in Qom, lecturing on jurisprudence and theology, and grooming numerous students. His most important characteristic was his spotless piety that influenced every one. He was a highly knowledgeable Islamic scholar, and it is said he had been gifted by God with the vision for the unseen. He has left behind a large number of valuable compilations, including "Kitab-e Salaat” and "Jama'e al-Masa’el”.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)