This Day in History

(September 22)

Date: 21 September 2014 - 20:53

News ID: ۵۳۶۳

Today is Monday; 31st of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1393 solar hijri; corresponding to 26th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa'dah 1435 lunar hijri; and September 22, 2014, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
942 solar years ago, on this day in 1072 AD, Ouyang Xiu, the famous Chinese historian, poet, politician, and calligrapher, died at the age of 65. He lived during the era of the Song Dynasty, and due to the multi-faceted nature of his talents, he would be regarded in Western parlance as a Renaissance man. Ouyang was one of the major players in the Qingli Reforms of the 1040s and was in charge of creating the New History of the Tang Dynasty. He was also regarded as one of the great masters of prose and poetry of the Tang and Song era.
713 lunar years ago, on this day in 722 AH, the Iranian Sunni Hanafi scholar, Sa'd od-Din Mas'oud ibn Umar Taftazani, was born in Taftazan near the northeastern Iranian city of Qochan in Khorasan Province. He studied in Herat, Gulistan, Khwarezm, Samarqand and Sarakhs. He mainly resided in Sarakhs, which today straddles the Iran-Turkmenistan border. He was active during the reign of the Turkic conqueror Amir Timur, and was attached to his court. He died in Samarqand at the age of 70 and was buried in Sarakhs. He wrote books and treaties on grammar, rhetoric, theology, logic, law and the exegesis of the holy Qur'an. His works were used as textbooks for centuries in Ottoman madrasahs. The bulk of his writing is in Arabic, although he wrote a commentary of the Qur'an in his native Persian and translated the poems of the famous Persian poet, Mosleh od-Din Sa'di of Shiraz, into Turkic.
494 solar years ago, on this day in 1520 AD, the Ottoman sultan, Selim I, died at the age of 55 after a reign of 8 years, some 3 years after seizing Syria and Egypt from the Mamluk rulers and declaring himself caliph, although he had no right or legitimacy even from the Sunni point of view. In 1512, he had usurped the throne by dethroning his father, Bayazid II and immediately embarked on fratricide, killing his brothers and cousins. An accomplished poet in both his native Turkish and in Persian, he was of violent temper and notorious for his frequent killing of his viziers and the genocide of Shi'ite Muslims in Anatolia because of his fears of the growing influence of the Safavid Dynasty of Iran, against whom he was lucky to win the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. His bid to build an alliance with Ubaydollah Khan Shaybani of Bukhara and the Timurid prince of Kabul, Zaheer od-Din Babar, against the Safavids failed. Babar (the future founder of the Mughal Empire of the Subcontinent) spurned the offer and opted to join Shah Ismail, while Shaybani was killed in battle by Iranians.
247 lunar years ago, on this day in 1188 AH, Jalal od-Din Haidar Shuja od-Dowla, the Nawab Wazir of the Mughal Empire and ruler of the Naishapuri dynasty of Iranian origin of the State of Awadh, died in his capital Faizabad after ruling for 21 years, and was succeeded by his son Asaf-od-Dowla. Son of Muqim Ali Khan Safdar Jung the Prime Minister of the Mughal Empire, who was a Seyyed from Naishapur in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, Shuja od-Dowla was both an experienced military commander and an able administrator. He played key roles in two definitive battles in Indian history. The first was the Third Battle of Panipat during which his decision to join Ahmad Shah Durrani of Afghanistan ended the Maratha domination of the northern regions of the Mughal Empire. He next overthrew the Maratha installed usurper of the Mughal Throne, Shah Jahan III, and reaffirmed Shah Alam II as the rightful emperor in Delhi. Shuja od-Dowla also assisted on several occasions Ali-Vardi Khan the Nawab Nazem of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, when the latter’s territories were ravaged by the Marathas. Known for his opposition to British expansionism, he played in a key role in the Battle of Buxar, along with the forces of Emperor Shah Alam II and Nawab Mir Qasim Ali Khan of Bengal – although the battle was lost. He is buried in the beautiful Golbari mausoleum in Faizabad which he developed into a full- fledged city, with gardens, palaces, markets, roads and other infrastructure. He was a patron of Persian literature.
225 solar years ago, on this day in 1789 AD, the Battle of Ramnic took place in Wallachia, near Ramnicu Sarat, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792. Russian general Alexander Suvorov, acting together with the Habsburg general Prince Josias of Coburg, attacked the main Ottoman army under Grand Vizier Hassan Pasha to inflict a crushing defeat.
186 solar years ago, on this day in 1828 AD, Shaka Zulu, the founder of the Zulu Kingdom in present day South Africa, was killed by his two step brothers after a reign of 13 years. One of his brothers who succeeded him fought the Dutch invaders, known as Boers, from 1830 to 1839. In 1880, the new colonial power, Britain, occupied the Zulu kingdom and divided it into several parts. Zulus are currently considered a powerful minority in South Africa and are represented by the Inkatha Freedom Party.
154 solar years ago, on this day in 1860 AD, war broke out between China and a joint invasion force of the French and British. The poorly-equipped Chinese suffered defeat and the British-French force plundered Beijing. China was forced to sign a treaty giving numerous concessions to Britain and France to monopolize Chinese seaports.
54 solar years ago, on this day in 1960 AD, the northwest African country of Mali gained independence from French colonial rule. An ancient centre of civilization, Mali had accepted Islam over a thousand years ago and founded a glorious Muslim empire that lasted till the 16th century. The first attacks were made by Morocco that led to the disintegration of the Mali Empire and in the subsequent centuries paved the way for France to penetrate and occupy it by 1898. Mali which was called French Sudan gained autonomy in 1958 followed by independence in 1960. It covers an area of over 1.2 million sq km and shares borders with Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Senegal.
49 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, the second Indo-Pakistani War (also known as the Second Kashmir War between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, ended after the UN called for a ceasefire. India's Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, suffered a fatal heart attack soon after the declaration of the ceasefire, during the peace talks in Tashkent with Pakistan’s president, General Ayyub Khan, under the auspices of the Soviet Union.
34 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, six days after tearing in front of TV cameras the 1975 Algiers Accord, launched an unprovoked invasion of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the behest of his masters in London and Washington, by air, land and sea. He occupied vast parts of southwestern and western Iran. In response the Iranians started the holy defence that thwarted all plans of the occupier and his eastern and western backers. For 8 years, the Iranian Muslims defended their homeland and managed to drive out the Ba’this forces from almost all occupied Iranian territory. The US and Saddam, fearing the impact of the Islamic Revolution had resorted to wanted war, but as is clear today by the friendly ties between the Iranian and Iraqi people, they failed miserably. Every year Iran commemorates the Holy Defence Week to promote and preserve its egalitarian values.
8 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Lebanon’s legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah celebrated "Divine Victory" over the illegal Zionist entity, in a massive demonstration in Beirut, following Israel’s shattering defeat in its 33-day unprovoked war.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)