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News ID: 39530
Publish Date : 14 May 2017 - 22:30

This Day in History (May 15)



Today is Monday; 25th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 18th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1438 lunar hijri; and May 15, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1117 lunar years ago, on this day in 321 AH, the renowned Arab lexicographer, literary figure, and poet, Mohammed ibn Hassan Ibn Durayd, passed away in Baghdad. He was born at Basra, where he studied under various teachers, but fled to Oman when Basra was attacked and occupied by the tyrannical forces of Zanj. After living twelve years in Oman he went to Iran, and under the protection of the governor, Abdullah ibn Mohammad ibn Mikal, and his son, Ismail, wrote his chief works, including "Jamhara fi'l-Lugha”, a 4-volume dictionary, published for the first time in Hyderabad Deccan some 85 years ago. Ibn Durayd later went to Baghdad, where he received a pension from the state. The "Maqsurah", is his poetical masterpiece in praise of Ibn Mikal and his son. Another of his works is the "Kitab al-Ishtiqaq” on etymology. Ibn Durayd was a follower of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt and has written some beautiful poems on the unrivalled merits of Imam Ali (AS) and the other Infallible Imams.
1112 lunar years ago, on this day in 326 AH, Abu’l-Qasim Hussain ibn Rouh an-Nowbakhti, the 3rd deputy of the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS), passed away after serving as the special representative for 21 years during the "Ghaybat as-Sughra” or Minor Occultation of the 12th Imam. His tomb in Baghdad is the site of pilgrimage. Of Iranian stock, he was born in Qom and belonged to the famous family of scholars that produced the astronomer Abu Sahl al-Fadhl an-Nowbakht, the son of Nowbakht Ahvazi al-Farsi who designed the astrological chart for construction of Baghdad. Hussain ibn Rouh settled in Baghdad where he became a prominent jurisprudent, theologian, and hadith expert. He was imprisoned for five years by the Abbasid regime which tried in vain to extract information from him about the whereabouts of the 12th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
1018 solar years ago, on this day in 999 AD, following the dethroning and blinding of the Iranian Samanid king of Central Asia, Mansur II, by his rebellious governor, Fayeq-e-Khasah and Turkic slave general, Bektuzun, the two entered into an agreement with the rising power of Sultan Mahmud the Turkic king of Ghazna, to divide the land of Khorasan between them, by retaining control of Merv and Naishapour, while ceding Herat and Balkh to Mahmoud. The Samanids, who ruled for 180 years from their capital Bukhara (presently in Uzbekistan) are credited with the emergence of the modern Persian language written in the Arabic script, which was once the lingua franca of the Islamic east, spread from Central Asia to Anatolia and the Subcontinent, and is now the official language of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The Ghaznavids further promoted this trend, resulting in the composing of the poetical masterpiece, the Shahnameh of Abu’l-Qassem Ferdowsi.
843 solar years ago, on this day in 1174 AD, Nour od-Din Zangi, the powerful ruler of the Turkic dynasty of Syria, northern Iraq and southeastern Anatolia, founded by his father Atabeg Emad od-Din, after breaking away from the Iran-based Seljuqid Empire, died while preparing to invade Egypt to bring under control his rebellious Kurdish general, Salah od-Din, who had seized the Land of the Nile for himself from the Ismaili Shi’ite Fatemid Dynasty. Nour od-Din Zangi was a thorn in the side of the European Crusader occupiers of Palestine, but despite his claim to serve the cause of Islam, he was an enemy of the followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, whom he repressed and expelled in thousands from the city of Aleppo and adjoining areas. A few years after his death, Salah od-Din destroyed the Zangid Dynasty, married Nour od-Din’s widow, and continued the same policy of repression of the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt, although he is credited with the liberation of Bayt al-Moqaddas after 88 years of occupation by the illegal Latin Kingdom of Palestine, set up by the Crusader invaders.
620 solar years ago, on this day in 1397 AD, the 4th king of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, who was posthumously called Sejong the Great, was born in an era when the Islamic calendar served as a basis for calendar reform owing to its superior accuracy over the Chinese-based calendars. The Joseon Dynasty used a Korean translation of the Huihui Lifa, which itself was a Chinese translation of the Islamic astronomy works of the Iranian Muslim scholar of Bukhara, Jamal od-Din Mohammad ibn ?aher ibn Mohammad az-Zaydi al-Bukhari (known in Chinese as Zhamaluding). Sejong, who ruled from 1418 to 1450, was against Chinese influences in language, culture and religion, and introduced "Hangul”, the native phonetic 28-alphabet system for the Korean language. He suffered from severe diabetes that eventually cost him his eyesight. He fell under the influence of inefficient persons, and in 1427 took the unwise decision of imposing a ban on the Huihui Korean Muslim community that had special status and stipends since the Yuan dynasty. The Huihui Korean Muslims were forced to abandon their headgear, to close down their Mosque. The tradition of Chinese-Islamic astronomy, however, continued to survive in Korea up until the early 19th century.  
471 lunar years ago, on this day in 967 AH, the Ottoman fleet led by the Croat Muslim Admiral Piyale Pasha and the Bey of Tripoli Turgut Ra’ees, who was a Greek Muslim, defeated a combined Christian fleet, led by the Spanish, in the Battle of Jerba at the island of the same name near Tunis, in one of the major marine battles in the world that prevented North Africa from falling to the expansionist designs of Spain and other Christian powers. In this battle over two thirds of the huge Christian armada was destroyed and as many as 18,000 killed in addition to 5,000 captured and taken to Istanbul, while the Ottoman loss was only one thousand soldiers. Since losing to the Ottoman fleet of Khayr od-Din Pasha (Barbarossa) at the Battle of Preveza over two decades earlier, and the disastrous expedition of Emperor Charles V against Algiers, some three years later, the major European sea powers in the Mediterranean, especially King Philip II of Spain together with Venice, appealed to Pope Paul IV in Rome and his allies to organize a Christian expedition against North Africa, two years after Piyale Pasha and Turgut Raees had captured the Balearic Islands and raided the Mediterranean coasts of Spain. The battle again proved the naval superiority of the Muslims and was over in a matter of hours, with about half the Christian ships captured or sunk.
375 solar years ago, on this day in 1642 AD, Shah Abbas II was crowned the 7th Safavid Emperor of Iran at the age of 10 years in Kashan, three days after the death of his father Shah Safi. Born in Qazvin, he was tutored by Rajab Ali Tabrizi, and learned how to maintain order over the vast empire and other state affairs by two other nobles named Mohammad-Ali Beg and Jani Khan Shamlu. A year after coronation, he moved his court to the Safavid capital of Isfahan. Unlike his father, he took an active interest in government and military matters; and like his great-grandfather Shah Abbas I, he was famous for the construction of many buildings, such as the famous Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan. On the western front his rule was relatively peaceful and was free of any Ottoman attack. In 1648 he managed to liberate Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan from occupation of the Mughal Empire of the Subcontinent. The Mughal ruler Shah Jahan sent his son Aurangzeb with an army of 50,000 soldiers but was unable to reoccupy Qandahar. In 1651, in the North Caucasus, Safavid troops came into conflict with Russia in the region of Sunzha, culminating into the Russo-Persian War of 1651–53. The Safavid influence prior to the war extended to the feudal tenure of the Kumyks in Daghestan. After two successful years, the Iranian plans were to capture the city of Terek and to move all the way to Astrakhan on the northern side of the Caspian Sea, trouble on the eastern front with Mughal India distracted attention. The Russian government sent an embassy, led by Prince Ivan Lobanov-Rostovsky and Ivan Komynin, to Isfahan for peaceful settlement of the conflict, to which the Shah II agreed. The war ended with the Safavids managing to increase their influence in the North Caucasus even more. He was a capable ruler and during his 24-year reign, the country was relatively peaceful and free of any Ottoman attack. Shah Abbas’ sudden death in Khusrauabad near Damghan on the night of 25–26 October 1666, at the age of 34 was a great blow to Iran. He was buried beside his father in holy Qom.
369 solar years ago, on this day in 1648 AD, the first of the treaties of the Peace of Westphalia was signed between Prussia, Austria, France, and Sweden in Munster and Osnabruck, thereby ending the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands. The last of these treaties was signed on October 24. Though these treaties ended the centuries' long bloody sectarian battles between the Catholic and Protestant sects of Christianity, they did not restore peace throughout Europe. France and Spain remained at war for the next eleven years, making peace only in the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659. Among the outcomes of the Peace of Westphalia was reduction of the power of the Pope and the Church and emergence of nation states.
241 solar years ago, on this day in 1776 AD, the first steam boat was built. Seventy years following the discovery of steam power by a French engineer, Denis Papin, a steam boat was built by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d’Abbans. The usage of steam power in ships marked a major development in the navigation industry.
167 solar years ago, on this day in 1850 AD, the Bloody Island Massacre took place in Lake County, California, in which over a hundred women, children, and elderly of the Pomo Amerindians were slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry, led by Nathaniel Lyon, while all able bodied men were on a hunting trip. One of the Pomo survivors of the massacre was a 6-year-old girl named Ni'ka, later renamed Lucy Moore. She hid underwater and breathed through a reed. Her descendants formed the Lucy Moore Foundation. The US has a bleak and bloody history of genocide of the native Amerindians, who have almost been exterminated, while the remnants survive in camps without any birthrights.
158 solar years ago, on this day in 1859 AD, the French scientist and physicist, Pierre Curie, was born in Paris. His talent in mathematics and physics was discovered at his youth and he conducted extensive research in these domains. In the year 1898, he managed to discover Radium with the assistance of his wife, Madame Curie. Pierre Curie died in the year 1906.
114 lunar years ago, on this day in 1324 AH, the first-ever Iranian parliament officially started its work, thanks to the selfless struggles of the people. The prominent members of the parliament included two popular religious leaders, Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabai, and Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani. Soon, Iran’s first Constitution was drafted and signed by the Qajarid King, Mozaffar od-Din Shah. It was the one of the most active parliaments during the Constitutional era, before deviation set in.
98 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the coastal city of Izmir was liberated from Greek occupation by Turkish forces led by Mustafa Kamal Pasha, who later emerged as a dictator and under western influence tried to eradicate the Islamic culture and religion of the Turkish Muslims.
77 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, the German army, after a five-day offensive, occupied Netherlands during World War 2. The German forces started their attacks on France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg, west of Germany, as of May 10, 1940, and after a while occupied all four countries.
24 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the UN General Assembly designated May 15 as "International Day of Families” to emphasize the importance to the family unit. The Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.
Ordibehesht 25 is commemorated every year in the Islamic Republic of Iran as Ferdowsi National Day, in honour of the great Iranian poet, Abu’l-Qasim Hassan Firdowsi, whose "Shahnamah” remains to this day as the finest example of Persian epic poetry.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)