Islamic History, Some Important Events
On October 10, in 680 AD (as per the Georgian Calendar), occurred the fateful day of Ashura or the 10th of Moharram in the year 61 AH, on which the heartrending tragedy of Karbala took place in Iraq, resulting in the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3rd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Immortal Saga of Imam Husain (AS) continues to inspire Muslims and all conscientious people in every age and place, and throughout history has been the catalyst for reform and revolutionary movements against tyranny and injustice.
On 7th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah in 114 AH, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), the 5th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred in Medina at the age of 57, through poisoning by the Omayyad caliph, Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik. His epithet “Baqer al-Uloum” means Splitter and Spreader of Sciences and he spared no efforts to promote the pure and pristine teachings of Islam in an era when foreign ideas and thoughts were confusing the minds of Muslims. His period of imamate was 19 years, and he was descended on both sides from the Prophet. He was laid to rest in the sacred Jannat al- Baqie Cemetery of Medina. We extend our condolences on the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), and will present you a special feature later in our today\’s programme.
On 7th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah in 179 AH, Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), after being detained in Medina by the tyrannical Abbasid caliph, Haroun Rashid, was brought to the Iraqi port city of Basra and imprisoned in the palace of the governor, Eisa bin Ja\’far. For a year the Imam languished here before being taken to Baghdad and imprisoned in the house of Fazl bin Rabee\’. In 183 AH, on the 25th of Rajab, Imam Kazem (AS) left the mortal world, a martyr, after his food was poisoned on the orders of Haroun, who knew that as long as the Prophet\’s rightful successor was alive, his claim to caliphate was under question by the people.
On 30th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa’dah in 220 AH, Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS) the 9th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) attained martyrdom in Baghdad as a result of a fatal dose of poison administered by Mu\’tassem, the 8th caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. Known as Jawad or the Generous, because of his generosity in both spiritual and material matters, he was only 25 years old on this day, having been entrusted with the Imam by God Almighty 17 years ago at the tender age of 8 years, following the martyrdom of his father, Imam Reza (AS) in distant Khorasan. Like the Prophets Jesus and John the Baptist, who since childhood displayed the God-given wisdom, Imam Jawad (AS) enlightened all those who came into contact with him. His memorable debates with scholars, while yet a boy, are recorded in books of history and hadith. We hereby extend our heartfelt condolences on the martyrdom anniversary of the 9th Imam and will present you a special feature later in our programme.
On 15th of the Islamic month of Zil-Q\’adah in 132 AH, the Abbasids, after defeating the Omayyad tyrants, assembled all surviving male members of this Godless clan near River Jordan, tied them up, and made them lie underneath wooden planks on which they held a grand feast by stomping to death their mortal enemies. The first Abbasid caliph is thus called “Saffah” because of the Omayyad blood he had shed by wreaking such a horrible vengeance that he even ordered the digging up of the graves of all their caliphs, including Mu\’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, and burned their bones, saying he was punishing them for their crimes against humanity.
On 6th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah in 158 AH, the tyrant Mansour ad-Dawaniqi, who styled himself as the 2nd caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, died of gluttony at the age of 63 after a reign of 22 years. His real name was Abdullah, and the reason he was called “Dawaniqi” was because of his stinginess. He claimed descent from the Prophet\’s uncle, Abbas Ibn Abdul-Muttaleb, although his mother was a morally-loose slave-girl from Africa, whom his father, Mohammad had taken as concubine. Persecuted during the days of the Godless Ommayad regime, he shot into prominence when his brother, Abu’l-Abbas as-Saffah, (the Blood-Shedder), deceitfully hijacked the caliphate by making the Muslims, especially of Khorasan, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, and other places, believe that rule of the Islamic state was being returned to the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). In 136 AH, following the death of his brother after a reign of 4-years, he styled himself as caliph and unleashed terror on the people, immediately killing Behzadaan pour Vandaad, known as Abu Muslim Khorasani, the Iranian general whose victories had brought the Abbasids to power. Mansour, who in the Omayyad era, had sworn allegiance to Mohammad Nafs-Zakiyya, a great grandson of the Prophet’s elder grandson, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), as the future ruler, cold-bloodedly martyred many descendants of the Prophets, through wars, imprisonment, and poisoning. His most prominent victim was Imam Ja\’far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He founded the city of Baghdad by using Iranian architects and Zoroastrian astrologers, and was the first person to destroy the holy shrine of the Chief of Martyrs, Imam Husain (AS), in Karbala.
On October 10, 732 AD, the Battle of Tours, near Poitiers in France, southwest of Paris, ended in the defeat of the Omayyad forces and the killing of their commander, Abdur-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, the governor of the Spanish region of Cordoba, by a huge army of Franks and Germans. The Christians were led by Charles Martel (an illegitimate son of the German chief, Pepin), whose barbaric nature as marauder of the frontiers of the Roman Empire, the Muslims failed to properly estimate. Another reason for the defeat of the Arab army was its preoccupation with war booty, as well as squabbles between various ethnic and tribal factions. Al-Ghafiqi, who had been appointed by the Omayyad tyrant of Damascus, Hisham Ibn Abdul-Malik, as commander of the Muslims in France in 730, after the death of Samh Ibn Malik in the Battle of Toulouse in 721 and of Anbasa Ibn Suhaym in the Battle of Gaul in 726, crossed the Pyrenees mountain range with 50,000 cavalry. He swiftly took Bordeaux and Aquitaine and poised for a decisive victory when Tours turned out to be a debacle that also claimed his life. This Battle is considered a strategic win for the Christians, since their defeat would have led to the conquest of all France and Germany by the Muslims and the possibility of their crossing the English Channel for subjugation of the British Isles. The debacle at Tours did not stop the Muslim advance elsewhere in Europe. Muslim presence continued in southern France for over a century. In 734, the Muslims took Arles, St. Remy, Avignon, and retook Lyons and Burgundy. Successful raids were conducted on the western (Atlantic) coast of France throughout the 8th and 9th centuries. In 889 the Muslims established a presence in western Switzerland, which lasted almost two centuries. During the reign of Abdur-Rahman III of Spain, Fraxinetum, Valais, Geneva, Toulon and Great St. Bernard were taken by Muslim armies who then swung around Lake Geneva in 956 and established themselves in the mountain passes leading into northern Italy. At the same time, Sicily and parts of southern Italy were firmly in the hands of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Dynasty of North Africa. Thereafter, Muslim military power began to decline, not because of the superiority of Europeans but due to infighting. Taking advantage of this chaos, Christian armies ejected the Muslims from southern France, Italy and the Mediterranean islands during the early Crusades (in 1050), persecuting, massacring and enslaving the population.
On 1st of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah in 126 AH, Yazid Ibn al-Waleed or Yazid III, the 12th self-styled caliph of the Omayyad usurper regime, died of a brain tumour, less than six months after seizing the caliphate through a coup against his immoral, drunkard and debauched cousin, Waleed Ibn Yazid or Waleed II, who was killed. The mother of Yazid III was an Iranian and he was known as “an-Naqqes” (the Diminisher) for his austerity measures in contrast to the profligacy and sinning habits of the Omayyads. It is worth noting that in 6 years from 126 to 132 AH, six Omayyad caliphs died one after another as this tyrannical dynasty came to its end.
On 16th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa\’dah in 529 AH, Mustarshid-Billah, the 29th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid dynasty, after a reign of 17 years, was killed by assassins, believed to be hired by the Seljuqid sultan, Mas’oud, who resented the caliph’s bid to assert his independence in political affairs. When Mustarshid launched a military campaign against Mas\’oud near Hamadan in western Iran, he was deserted by his troops, taken prisoner by the Sultan, but pardoned on promise not to quit the palace. Left in the royal tent, he was found murdered in the Sultan’s tent.
On 20th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa\’dah in 270 AH, the founder of the short-lived Tulunid Dynasty of Egypt, Ahmad Ibn Tulun, died after a 17-year rule during which he killed at least eighteen thousand people. His father, Tulun, was a Turkic slave sent as part of a tribute by the Iranian governor of Bukhara to the Abbasid caliph, Ma\’mun. The Abbasids used to recruit Turkic slaves to serve as military officers. Ibn Tulun received military training in Samarra, the new Abbasid capital, where he was appointed commander of the special forces of the tyrannical caliph, Mutawakkil. After serving in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire in Tarsus, he gained the favor of Musta\’in, and in the reign of the next caliph, Mu\’taz, he was sent as governor to Egypt. Since, the then capital of Egypt, al-Fustat, was too small to accommodate his armies, he founded a new city nearby called Madinat al-Qatta\’I (Quartered City), to serve as his capital. It was laid out in the style of the grand cities of Iran, including a large public square, a palace, and a large ceremonial mosque, which was named after Ibn Tulun. This city was razed on the fall of the Tulunid Dynasty, and only the mosque has survived. Ibn Tulun asserted his independence from the Baghdad caliphate by minting coins in his name and seizing control of large parts of Syria. He defeated an Abbasid army sent to Egypt against him. Within two decades after his death, the inefficient rule of his son and grandsons brought about the collapse of the dynasty and re-imposition of Abbasid rule on Egypt.
On 20th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa\’dah in 381 AH, the famous Greek Muslim general and statesman of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi\’ite dynasty of Egypt and North Africa, Jowhar bin Abdullah as-Siqili (the Sicilian), passed away. He is the conqueror of Egypt and the builder of the city of Cairo including the famous al-Azhar Mosque and academy. Born a Christian on the island of Sicily near what is now Italy, he embraced the truth of Islam and joined the service of the Fatemids, soon rising into prominence as al-Kateb (the Chancellor) and al-Qa\’ed (the General). He subdued North Africa as far as the Atlantic coast and then turned towards the east to wrest control of Egypt from the Ikhshidid Turkic governors of the Abbasid caliphate. He built Cairo as the new capital of the Fatemids, by publicly bearing testimony in the Azaan to the imamate of Imam Ali (AS) after the Prophethood of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The phrase “hayya ala khayr il-amal” (hasten to the best of deeds), which was dropped from the Azaan by the second caliph, was also revived and echoed from the minarets of “al-Azhar”, which is a derivative of “Az-Zahra” or the Radiant, the famous epithet of Hazrat Fatema (SA) the Immaculate Daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
On September 28,1238 AD, the Muslim emirate of Valencia in Spain was forced to surrender to the besieging King James I of Aragon, on certain conditions that were never kept by the Christians who persecuted Muslims and converted mosques into churches, beside expelling over 50,000 of the people of this land, which for five hundred years had nurtured many great Islamic scholars and poets. Known as “Balansia” to Muslims and also called “Madinat-at-Turab” (City of Sands), its keys were delivered to King James by the Muslim king, Zayan, with the words: “In the city of Valencia live Muslims, the nobles of my people, along with Christians and Jews. I hope you continue to govern in the same harmony, all working and living together in this noble land. Here, during my reign, Easter processions went out and Christians professed their religion freely, as our Qur\’an recognizes the Messiah and the Virgin. I hope you bestow the same treatment to the Muslims of Valencia.”
Poets such as Ibn al-Abbar and Ibn Amira, have mourned their exile from this beloved Islamic city in their poems. The Christians broke their promise and gradually obliterated all traces of Islam and Muslims.
On October 2, 1187 AD, a memorable event occurred in Islamic history. A united Muslim army of Arab, Turks, Kurds, and Iranians, under command of the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, Salah od-Din the Kurd, liberated the Islamic holy city of Bayt ol-Moqaddas after 88 years of occupation by the Christian Crusaders of Europe. He thus ended the illegal existence of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which the European occupiers had set up in Palestine after massacring as many as 70,000 Muslim men, women, and children in Bayt al-Moqaddas in 1099 while seizing it from the Ismaili Shi\’ite Fatemid Dynasty of Egypt-North Africa. The anniversary of this great day is a constant reminder to the Palestinians and world Muslims that God Willing, the day will soon come when Bayt al-Moqaddas will again be liberated and the illegal Zionist entity will cease to exist.
On September 25, 1294 AD, English philosopher, chemist and Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon, died. His access to Latin translations of the Arabic works of Islamic scholars opened his mind, and he became greatly influenced in the field of optics by the monumental book “Kitab al-Manazer” of Abul-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen to medieval Europe). His writings also show the impact of the Arab philosopher Ya’qub Ibn Is-haaq al-Kindi (Alkindus to medieval Europe). Moreover, Bacon\’s investigations of the properties of the magnifying glass show the clear influence of the Iranian scientist Ala Ibn Sahl\’s research in dioptrics.
On October 4, 1227 AD, the self-styled al-Mohad caliph of Morocco and Islamic Spain, Abdullah al-Adel, was assassinated. He had seized power though a coup three years earlier plunging the realm into instability that lasted well beyond his death. He is often regarded as one of the most disastrous rulers. His coup divided the dynasty and set in motion the loss of Andalusia or Islamic Spain, and the eventual collapse of the al-Mohad state.
On October 4, 1582 AD, Thursday was the last day of the use of the Julian calendar in Italy and the three other Catholic countries of Spain, Portugal, and Poland. The next day Friday instead of being October 5 became October 15, as per the new Gregorian calendar established by Pope Gregory XIII. Ten days had thus been skipped to realign the calendar, and Easter, with the equinoxes. The Julian calendar, and its leap years as introduced by the Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, did not quite fit the solar year. An error of one day accumulated for each 128 years. Britain resisted this Catholic change until 2nd September 1752, while Russia until 31 January 1918. The Islamic solar hijri calendar which starts on the exact time of the spring equinox and is in use in Iran, Afghanistan and the peoples of neighbouring countries, is far more perfect than the Gregorian calendar that was imposed by the colonial powers on the rest of the world after World War I.
On October 9, 1264 AD, the Spanish Muslim Ta’efa of Jerez in southern Spain, along with its capital of the same name, was occupied by Christian mercenaries of the kingdom of Castile after over five-and-a-half centuries of Muslim rule. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.
On September 19, 866 AD, Byzantine Emperor, Leo VI, was born. Of doubtful paternity, since his mother was the mistress of Emperor Michael III and at the same time the wife of the future Emperor Basil the Macedonian, he succeeded to the throne on the latter\’s death and ruled for 26 years till his own death in 912. His reign saw the loss of more territory to the Muslims in both Sicily and in Asia Minor, as well as islands in the Aegean Sea.
The greatest setback for him was in 904, when the Greek Muslim admiral, Raseq al-Wardami, sailing from Syria, took control of Thessalonica, the second largest city of the Byzantium Empire. After a week\’s stay, during which he seized some 60 ships and forced the Christians to free over 4,000 Muslim prisoners, Raseq sailed back to the Levant.
Born as a Christian and named Leo by his parents, Raseq was an officer in the Byzantine navy, before discovering the truth of Islam and joining the Muslims. Also known as Ghulam Zurafa, three years later in 907, he had sailed up the Dardanelles and besieged Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, much to the horror of Emperor Leo VI. In May 912, just before the humiliated Leo VI died, Raseq al-Wardami and his fellow Greek Muslim admiral, Damian of Tarsus, known by his Muslim name, Ghulam Yazman, decisively defeated the Byzantine admiral, Himerios, off the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea, in retaliation for an attack by Christians on the Muslims of Cyprus.
On August 13, 1536 AD, Buddhist monks from Kyoto\’s Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Japan in what is known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. The Buddhists, despite their massive propaganda to be peaceful, have a violent history of mass massacres and destruction.
In China, the Buddhist dynasties have a long history of internecine wars for power. The bloodthirsty Mongolian warlord, Chingiz Khan, who devastated large parts of Asia including the Muslim world, massacring millions of people, was a Buddhist.
Today, Buddhist monks in Myanmar (Burma) are cruelly killing the Rohingya Muslims and destroying mosques, homes, and businesses.