This Day in History

Date: 09 October 2020 - 21:51

News ID: ۸۳۶۶۹

(October 10)

Today is Saturday; 19th  of the Iranian month of Mehr 1399 solar hijri; corresponding to 22nd of the Islamic month of Safar 1442 lunar hijri; and October 10, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1292 solar years ago, on this day in 728 AD, the Iranian ascetic, Hassan al-Basri, passed away at the age of 86 in the Iraqi port city of Basra, where he lived most of his life. He is considered a progenitor by the Sufis, as well as by the Sunni sect, although neither the term "Sufi” existed in his times, nor the sect which the 2nd Abbasid caliph, Mansour Dawaniqi, created as "Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah” sometime around 150 AH (around 765 AD) to divide the general public from Shi’ite Muslims (staunch followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt), had yet evolved.
1288 solar years ago, on this day in 732 AD, the Battle of Tours, near Poitiers in France, southwest of Paris, ended in the defeat of the Omayyad forces and killing of their commander, Abdur-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, the governor of the Spanish region of Cordoba, by a huge army of Franks and Germans.
1090 lunar years ago, on this day in 352 AH, the Arabic poet, Abu’l-Qassem Ali ibn Ishaq al-Baghdadi, passed away at the age of 42. Incidentally, he was born on this same day of 20th of Safar. Most of his poetry is on the unrivalled merits of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams. He lived for some time at the court of Amir Saif ad-Dowlah Hamdani in Aleppo and has praised this gallant ruler for his love of the Ahl al-Bayt, as well as his exploits against the Byzantines.
813 lunar years ago, on this day in 629 AH, the Sunni Hanbali narrator of hadith, Abu Bakr Ibn Noqtah, died in Baghdad. He travelled widely over Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt to gather hadith, and is the author of the book "at-Taqyeed”. Among his students is the well-known religious scholar and historian, Ibn Asaker, the author of the voluminous book History of Damascus, who has recorded in his work the details of 400 ayahs of the holy Qur’an that God revealed to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) on the merits of his vicegerent, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).
440 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, after a three-day siege, the English Army brutally beheaded over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.
399 solar years ago, on this day in 1621 AD, Asmat Begum, the highly cultured Iranian lady, whose daughter Noor Jahan and granddaughter Mumtaz Mahal became two of the most famous empresses of the Moghal Empire of Hindustan (northern subcontinent), died in Agra. She was laid to rest in the beautiful mausoleum known by her husband’s name "Tomb of E’temad od-Dowla”. Born in Khorasan, she was the daughter of Mirza Ala od-Dowla Aqa Mullah of the illustrious Aqa Mullah clan. She married Mirza Ghiyas Beg Tehrani, the youngest son of Khorasan’s deputy governor Khwajah Mohammad-Sharif, and became mother of four children. Following decline of fortunes in Iran, the family migrated to India, where Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar welcomed the talented Ghiyas Beg, who in the reign of the next emperor, Noor od-Din Jahangir, became a trusted minister and was awarded the title of E’temad od-Dowlah. The couple’s youngest daughter, Mehr un-Nisa, married Emperor Jahangir and was given the title of Noor Jahan, bringing further promotions at the court for father Ghiyas Beg and brother Abu’l-Hassan Asaf Khan.
289 solar years ago, on this day in 1731 AD, the English philosopher and biologist, Henry Cavendish, was born in the French city of Nice. He turned into an authority on physics, chemistry, and biology. He was the first European to prove that hydrogen is lighter than air and the objects that are filled with hydrogen can ascend. He died in 1810.
240 solar years ago, on this day in 1780 AD, the Great Hurricane swept across the Caribbean islands killing 20,000-to-30,000 people. It is probably the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, with winds possibly exceeding 320 km per hour or 200 miles per hour.
216 lunar years ago, on this day in 1226 AH, the scholar Mirza Baqer Khwansari was born in Khwansar near Isfahan to the prominent religious leader Mirza Zayn al-Abedin Khwansari. He became a leading jurisprudent, hadith expert, litterateur, and researcher of his time. As head of the Isfahan seminary, his classes were attended by such scholars of repute as Shaikh ash-Shari’ah Isfahani, Seyyed Abu Turab Khwansari, Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi and others. He authored several books including "Qurrat-al-Ayn” and "Rowdhaat al-Jannat fi Ahwal al-Ulema wa’s-Sadaat” – the latter being a biographical encyclopedia of scholars in several volumes.
138 lunar years ago, on this day in 1303 AH, prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ja’far Shushtari, passed away. His power of speech, piety, and strong memory was known to all. He was an accomplished jurisprudent and spent all his life, guiding people and carrying out religious duties. He groomed several students and authored numerous books, including "Usoul ad-Din” (Fundamentals of Religion)
118 solar years ago, on this day in 1902 AD the first session of International Arbitration Court was held in Hague, Netherlands. Founded in 1899 upon the demand of Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, this court is one of the oldest international judicial bodies and operates under UN supervision.
109 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, the Wuchang Uprising led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty and founding of the Republic of China in February 1912, following a railway crisis that resulted in the Xinhai Revolution. On this day, 17 years later in 1928, Chiang Kai-Shek became Chairman of the Republic of China, but lost the country to the communist leader, Mao Zedong in 1949.
107 solar years ago, on this day in 1913 AD, the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans commingled in the Panama Canal after US engineers blew up the Gamboa Dam and water began to fill the Culebra Cut. By the summer of 1913, the locks and the Culebra Cut (culebra means snake) had been finished. The struggle to dig the Culebra Cut had lasted seven years. On 26 September water was first turned into the locks. This act also marked the final stage in the creation of Lake Gatun, 85 ft above sea level, the largest man-made lake at that time.
76 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, 800 Gypsy children were murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp by Nazi German soldiers, who during World War 2 killed tens of millions of European Christians in the holocaust, which the Zionists and their backers in the West today wrongly claim to be directed against the negligible minority of European Jews.
50 solar years ago, on this day in 1970, Fiji gained independence from 90 years of British rule, and was declared a republic. The Fiji Archipelago covers an area of 18,274 square km and is situated in the Pacific Ocean. Almost 40 percent of the 850,000 population is made up of descendants of Indians brought by the British as contract labourers in the 19th century. Muslims number 85,000 or 10 percent of the national population, while Shi’ites or followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt are estimated around 30,000.
36 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, Iranian poet and researcher, Abdul-Karim Amiri Firouzkouhi, passed away at the age of 75. Born in a village near the northern city of Firouzkouh, he started writing poetry since his youth, while acquiring Islamic sciences. His poems have a religious theme and he composed poetry in the different genres including odes and lyrics. He has left behind a 2-volume Diwan. Among his other works, is a comprehensive introduction to the Diwan of the renowned poet, Sa’eb Tabrizi.
36 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, the exegete of Holy Qur’an, and university lecturer, Ayatollah Mirza Khalil Kamarai, passed away. He has left behind several compilations in Persian and Arabic, including a complete exegesis of Holy Qur’an, and the book: "Onsor-e Shuja’at” (Element of Valour) on the exemplary life of Imam Husain (AS) and the Immortal Martyrs of Karbala.
30 solar years ago, on this day 1990 AD, the Assembly for Proximity among Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence was established in Tehran on the orders of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in order to focus on the commonalities between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims for promoting the solidarity of the Ummah and preventing discord and misunderstandings.