This Day in History (September 17)

Date: 16 September 2020 - 21:53

News ID: ۸۲۸۸۹

Today is Thursday; 27th of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1399 solar hijri; corresponding to 28th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1442 lunar hijri; and September 17, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1406 lunar years ago, on this day in 36 AH, Hudhayfa ibn Yaman, the loyal companion of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), passed away in Mada’en, Iraq, where he was serving as governor. During the Battle of Khandaq, he was asked by the Prophet to obtain information about the enemy’s camp, and he successfully did. He was trusted by the Prophet and informed him of many future events and seditions, including the true characteristics of some people, especially the hypocrites amongst his companions. When a group of hypocrites from among the Muslims lay in ambush to assassinate the Prophet while he was as returning during night from the expedition to Tabuk, a streak of lightning illuminated the sky and stayed for a while instead of a brief flash, thereby exposing the conspirators and revealing their identity to the Prophet and Hudhayfa. Since Hudhayfa was told by the Prophet the names of all the hypocrites, he is called him "Saheb as-Sirr” (close confidant of the Prophet). He is considered as one of the four prominent companions of Imam Ali (AS. The biographer al-Kashshi has cited a hadith in which Hudhayfa is considered one of the seven people because of whom God bestows His blessings and bounties on people. These seven people attended the funeral of the Noblest-ever lady, the Prophet’s daughter Hazrat Fatema az-Zahra (SA), who annoyed with the hypocrites willed to her husband, Imam Ali (AS) to bury her in the dead of night, without any person connected to the ruling regime attending her funeral. Hudhayfa narrated hadiths regarding the virtues of Imam Ali (AS) and the Ahl al-Bayt. He also narrated a hadith from the Prophet of Twelve Imams after him.
1381 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, 18 days after the heartrending tragedy of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the captive children and womenfolk of the Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), along with the heads of martyrs, mounted on spear-points, entered Ba’lbek in what is now Lebanon on their way to Damascus, the capital of the Godless Yazid, the self-styled caliph of the Omayyad regime. The noble captives were taken through a circuitous route passing through Mosul in Iraq, Nusaybin in what is now Turkey and Aleppo in Syria, where there are sacred places related to Imam Husain (AS), so that people on the normal straight route to the Syrian capital do not become aware of the tragedy of Karbala and rise up against Yazid.
786 lunar years ago, on this day in 656 AH, Baghdad was sacked by the Buddhist army of the Mongol marauder, Hulagu Khan (grandson of the bloodthirsty Chingiz Khan), who had the 37th and last self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, al-Musta’sem, rolled in a carpet and trampled to death under the feet of horses.
204 solar years ago, on this day in 1816 AD, British archaeologist, Charles Thomas Newton, was born.
162 lunar years ago, on this day in 1280 AH, the scholar, Mirza Mohammad Taher Tonekabouni, was born in Kelardasht, Mazandaran Province.
120 solar years ago, on this day in 1900 AD, the Filipinos led by Juan Cailles defeated the Americans led by Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac. It was a major setback for the US, although it went on to occupy the Philippines in the war it had launched against the Spanish Empire two years earlier.
72 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, the last Muslim kingdom of the Subcontinent came to its end with the surrender of Haiderabad-Deccan to the Indian invasion forces after some six days of resistance by its ruler, Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII that ended the 224-year rule of his dynasty, and 6 centuries of the independence of Muslim Deccan from Hindustan (Northern Subcontinent). The kingdom was the size of France, despite gradual occupation of its territories on the north, south, and the east by British colonialists. It decided to remain independent on partition of the Subcontinent into India and Pakistan a year earlier in August 1947. The Indian invasion was codenamed "Operation Polo” since Haiderabad-Deccan had the most number of polo grounds in South Asia – 17 in all. The Indian invasion was a calamity for the local people, especially in the Marathwara region, where 200,000 people were massacred. So catastrophic was its aftermath that an official enquiry ordered by Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru was never published. Professor Wilfred Cantwell Smith, who as a critic of the Nizam, had visited Haiderabad in 1949, wrote a seminal article in the periodical "The Middle East Journal” in 1950 (Volume 4) titled "Haiderabad: A Muslim Tragedy”. Citing eyewitness accounts provided by conscientious Hindus, he wrote: "Off the battlefield, however, the Muslim community fell before a massive and brutal blow, the devastation of which left those who did survive reeling in bewildered fear. Thousands upon thousands were slaughtered; many hundreds of thousands uprooted. The instrument of their disaster was, of course, vengeance (on the alleged atrocities of the Razakars).” The Islamic culture of the Deccan, in contrast to Hindustan, evolved independently through direct contacts with Iran and Arabia via the sea route. The Persian language was once widespread in the state, and Haiderabad still has hundreds of thousands of valuable Persian and Arabic manuscripts in its libraries and museums. It is worth noting that the Deccan, which throughout pre-Islamic history, had remained independent, except for very brief periods of domination by the North, had declared its independence from the Turkic Muslim Tughlaq Dynasty of Hindustan in 1347 under the leadership of the general of Iranian origin, Ala od-Din Hassan Bahman Shah, who founded the Bahmani Kingdom. This dynasty split up into five sultanates in the early 16th century, of which the three major powers were the Nizam Shahis of Ahmadnagar, the Adel Shahis of Bijapur, and the Qotb Shahis of Haiderabad-Golkandah – all of whom were Shi’ite Muslims, who considered the Safavid Shahs of Iran as their emperors, rather than the Mughals of Hindustan. The Adel Shahis and the Qotb Shahis were in fact of Turkic Iranian origin, and their realms were annexed in 1686 and 1687 respectively by the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. In 1724 the Deccan again became independent under the astute general, Qamar od-Din Khan Nizam ol-Molk Asaf Jah I – an accomplished Persian poet descended from the Iranian mystic Shehab od-Din Sohravardi. He was present in Delhi during the invasion of Nader Shah, and had been offered by the Iranian conqueror the rule of all India, which he declined out of respect for the defeated Mughal Emperor, Mohammad Shah. The last ruler, Asaf Jah VII was an efficient administrator who carried out extensive infrastructural projects in his kingdom, including dams, highways, gardens, schools, colleges, universities, libraries, hospitals, museums, power plants, etc. He never discriminated between Muslims and Hindus and was an accomplished poet in Urdu and Persian. Even after losing his kingdom, he generously donated to the defence of India during wars with China and Pakistan.
72 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, UN mediator, Folke Bernadotte, was assassinated by Zionist terrorists in Bayt al-Moqqadas, before he could present his plan for resolution of the Palestinian issue and termination of the first Israeli war.
50 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, King Hussein of Jordan ordered a military assault on Palestinians to prevent them from carrying out operations against the illegal Zionist entity.
40 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Saddam, the dictator of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, tore in front of TV cameras the 1975 Algiers Accord with Iran, which he himself had signed in 1975. Six days later, on the US orders, he launched his unprovoked war on the Islamic Republic that lasted 8 years. In 1990, Saddam had to eat the humble pie and acknowledge the Algiers Accord that delineates the southwestern border between the two countries.
39 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, the city of Susangerd and its surrounding areas in southwestern Iran, were liberated by Iran’s Muslim combatants from Ba’thist occupation.
15 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, a car bomb in a Shi’a Muslim village east of Baghdad left almost 50 people martyred in addition to some hundred injured. It was the work of terrorists on the payroll of the US and Saudi Arabia.
9 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement began in Zuccotti Park, New York City. The OWS slogan, "We are the 99%”, refers to income inequality and wealth distribution in the US between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population – a fact confirmed by the Congress’s 2012 budget.