2232 solar years ago, the largest and most successful ambushes in military history took place in the Battle of Lake Trasimene in northern Italy as part of the Second Punic War, when the Carthaginians (of what is now Tunisia, Algeria, the North African coastline and Spanish coast) led by the brilliant general, Hannibal, defeated the Romans under the Consul Gaius Flaminius, who had set out with a huge army to try to avenge the earlier defeat at Trebia. Occupying an ideally concealed position in the hills and forests overlooking the lake, Hannibal skillfully used his army of North Africans and Europeans to annihilate the initial Roman force of about 30,000, of which 15,000 were either killed in battle or drowned while trying to escape into the lake — including Flaminius himself. The others were captured and sold into slavery, while Hannibal suffered only 2,500 casualties. The disaster for Rome did not end there. Within a day or two, a reinforcement force of 4,000 under Gaius Centenius was intercepted and destroyed. The Second Punic War lasted from 218 to 202 BC and involved battles in the western and eastern Mediterranean, with the participation of the Berbers on Carthage's side. The war is marked by Hannibal's landing in Spain with an army of elephants and his overland journey through what is now France, via which he crossed the Alps into Italy. Roman narrowly escaped destruction during his spectacular victories. The term "Punic" comes from the Latin word Punicus or Poenicus, which is a reference to the Carthaginians' ancestry in Phoenicia or modern Lebanon.
1383 lunar years ago, in 53 AH, the bloodthirsty Omayyad governor of Iraq and Fars, Ziyad Ibn Abihi (son of unknown father), died in Kufa at the age 53. Born in Ta’ef to a slave-girl, named Sumayya, used by her Arab master as a prostitute to augment his earnings, Ziyad known as a person of dubious paternity, became a Muslim (in name only) with the spread of Islam. His craftiness and brutal nature in handling the affairs of Fars (Iran), made Mu’awiyya ibn Abu Sufyan, on usurping the caliphate, to procure as witness the former wine-seller of Ta’ef, Abu Maryam Sululi, and declare him as half-brother on the testimony that Ziyad was the result of the cohabitation of his father Abu Sufyan with the prostitute Sumayya while on a visit to Ta’ef. As an enemy of the Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Household, Ziyad terrorized the followers of Imam Ali (AS) in Iraq, and martyred some prominent figures. On his death he was succeeded in his position as governor by his equally bloodthirsty son, Obaidullah (also born out of wedlock), who has earned lasting damnation by perpetrating the heartrending tragedy of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS).
860 lunar years ago, on this day in 576 AH, the Baghdadi grammarian, poet, and author, Mohammad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Muwaheb, famous as Ibn Khorasani, because of his origin in northeastern Iran, passed away at the age of 82. Among his works, mention could be made of a voluminous diwan of Arabic poetry.
828 lunar years ago, on this day in 608 AH, the poet and scholar Abu’l-Qasim Hibatollah bin Ja'far, known as Qazi as-Sa'eed Ibn Sana ul-Mulk, famous for the treatise "Dar at-Tiraaz" which he devoted to the genre of "muwas?h?s?h?ah” poetry, passed away in Cairo at the age of 63. He belonged to a distinguished scholarly family of Fatemid Egypt, and was well versed in hadith and the exegesis of the holy Qur'an in addition to Arabic grammar. He lived in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria as well, and for a time served as Qazi or judge in Damascus under the new Ayyoubid Dynasty, founded in Egypt and Syria by the Kurdish conqueror, Salaheddin Ayyoubi, in whose praise he composed some of his poems. His poetical compositions include an account of the Epic of Ashura (Moharram 10) and the tragic martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
488 solar years ago, on this day in 1527 AD, Italian historian and philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, died in his hometown Florence. Regarded as a founder of modern (unprincipled) political science, he was a diplomat, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic, serving as secretary to the Second Chancery from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici family were out of power. He wrote his political theory titled "The Prince” after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility. He believed that there is no harm in acquiring power and maintain it through any means possible including deceit and oppression, without regard for ethical principles or moral and religious values. Machiavelli died in 1527.
191 solar years ago, on this day in 1824 AD, Egyptian forces, dispatched by Mohammad Ali Pasha to quell the West European-backed Greek sedition against Ottoman rule, recaptured Psara Island in the Aegean Sea from the rebels.
111 lunar years ago, on this day in 1325 AH, the prominent scholar Sheikh Hassan Ali ibn Haj Mahmoud Tehrani, passed away. He was a student of the scholar, Majd Shirazi.
110 solar years ago, on this day in 1905 AD, the French philosopher and author, Jean-Paul Sartre, was born in Paris. He was among the pioneers of the weird school of thought known as Existentialism. He refused to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964. Among his books, mention can be made of "The Flies” and "Being and Nothingness”. He died in 1980. It is worth noting that Sartre’s philosophy was debated and disproved by two of Iran’s leading Islamic philosophers who were contemporary with him – Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabataba’i, and Allamah Mohammad Taqi Ja’fari.
89 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Iraqi Islamogist and philosopher, Muhsin Seyyed Mahdi, was born in the holy city of Karbala. After finishing studies in Baghdad, he was awarded a government scholarship to study at the American University of Beirut. He taught for a year at the University of Baghdad before going to the US in 1948, where he obtained an M.A. and Ph.D at the University of Chicago. His wrote his dissertation on Ibn Khaldun, and after spending two years in Baghdad, returned to Chicago, where he taught at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. At Harvard University (from 1969 until his retirement in 1996), as Professor of Arabic, he served as director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and also as Chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He was well versed in medieval Arabic, ancient Greek, medieval Jewish and Christian philosophy as well as modern Western political philosophy. Grounded in the methods of critical editions of manuscripts, he tried to establish the same standards in the fields of Arabic philology and philosophy. He devoted much of his career to searching for manuscripts wherever his travels took him. He is especially known for the recovery, edition, translation and interpretation of many of the works of the renowned Islamic philosopher, Abu Nasr al-Farabi. Among his books is "Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy”. He also researched, edited, and published "The Thousand and One Nights.”
62 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, Benazir Bhutto, who served as Pakistan's prime minister for two terms – from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996 – was born in Karachi in a Sindhi Muslim family. She was the daughter of Prime Minister Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, who was deposed and executed by coup leader General Zia ul-Haq. Her mother Nosrat Isfahani was of Iranian origin. Benazir was assassinated under suspicious conditions during a public rally on 27 December 2007 during General Pervez Musharraf’s rule, when it seemed that due to her immense popularity, she was all set to win the parliamentary elections.
45 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, the Leader of Indonesia’s independence from Dutch colonial rule, Ahmed Sukarno, died at the age of 69. He was elected as president of Indonesia in 1949, and was in power for 15 years when General Suharto staged a coup and seized power. In 1967, he was forced to resign.
34 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Islamic thinker, scientist, and Iranian defense minister, Dr. Mostafa Chamran, was martyred by the invading Ba'thist forces at the age of 49 while directing operations at the warfronts in Khuzestan, southwest Iran. He studied electronic engineering and obtained a PhD in this field from the US, where he was active in the struggle against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. He left his prestigious job as a senior research staff scientist at Bell Laboratories and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to live in self-exile in Lebanon, where, while cooperating with the famous Iranian émigré religious leader, Imam Musa Sadr, he helped the deprived Lebanese people set up the Amal (Hope) Movement to confront the state terrorism of the illegal Zionist entity. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, he returned to Iran and was in charge of organizing the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC). He was elected to the parliament in March 1980, and subsequently appointed defense minister. When the US imposed the 8-year war on Iran through Saddam, he was named Imam Khomeini's (RA) representative to the Supreme Defense Council. As an experienced general he was actively involved in defense operations at the warfronts. On his martyrdom, the Father of the Islamic Revolution hailed him for his selfless efforts.
25 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 Richter on the scale jolted Gilan and Zanjan Provinces in northwestern Iran, at night, inflicting huge fatalities and major losses. The epicenter of this quake which was in Roudbar, claimed more than 50,000 lives, while wounding 60,000 others and leaving 500,000 people homeless. In the wake of this catastrophic earthquake, the Iranian people and government rushed to help the quake victims and compensated for the damages imposed by this quake.
23 lunar years ago, on this day in 1413 AH, Ayatollah Mirza Hashem Amoli, passed away at the 91. Born near Amol in Mazandaran, he studied in Tehran under Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres for twelve years, before moving to holy Qom, After achieving Ijtehad, he moved to holy Najaf in Iraq and stayed there for about thirty years. He moved back to Qom around 1963, and firmly supported the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) in the struggle against the despotic rule of the British-nstalled and American-backed Pahlavi regime. His famous students include Mostafa Mohaqeq Damad, Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani, Ayatollah Mohammad Mofatteh, and Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi. Ayatollah Amoli was the father of the Dr. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) and of Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, the Judiciary Head.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)