What happened on the 8th day of Ramadan throughout history?

Many significant historical events took place on the eighth day of Ramadan of 273 AH. The famous scholar Ibn Majah died, the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan took power in 455 AH, and physician Abu Al-Qassim Al-Zahrawi died in 578 AH.

Wassim Afifi, researcher and editor of the patrimony site, told Al Arabiya.net that on the 8th of Ramadan AH 273 AH, the imam and the modern scholar Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Yazid Ibn Majah al-Rab’i al-Qazwini passed away.

Ibn Majah

He was born in the year 209 AH in the town of Qazvin and grew up in a scientific atmosphere. He was fond of studying Sharia in general and the science of the Hadith in particular, memorizing the Holy Quran and frequenting the circles of the compilers of Hadiths that have spread in Qazvin, until he compiled a large numbers of Hadith himself.

He studied under many scholars including Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna Bin Obaid bin Qais bin Dinar al Bassari known as Al Zaman and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah ; his most famous students include Ali bin Saeed bin Abdullah al-Ghadani, Ibrahim bin Dinar al-Jarashi al Hamdani, and Ahmed bin Ibrahim al-Qazwini.

One of the most famous books written by Ibn Majah is Sunan Ibn Majah, which is considered an encyclopedia of Hadith that includes 40,000 Hadiths between Saheeh, Hasan and Da'eef.

Imam Ibn Majah died on Monday, 7th Ramadan 273 AH, and was buried on the day after. His brother Abu Bakr prayed at his funeral. Abu Bakr, his other brother Abu Abdullah and his son Abdullah buried him.

Alp Arslan

On the eighth day of Ramadan, Sultan Mohammed nicknamed Alp Arslan meaning the courageous lion took power. He was the leader of the Muslims in the Battle of Manzikert. The victory of the Muslims in Manzikert was a decisive point in history. The battle eliminated the control of the Roman state in Anatolia.

In addition, it weakened its powers and made it vulnerable until it finally got demolished at the hands of the Ottoman Sultan Mohammed al-Fateh.

Alp Arslan, like his uncle Tughril, was a wise and skillful leader. He adopted a special policy based on the consolidation of his rule in the country under the influence of the Seljuk, before aspiring to subjugate new territories and annex them to his country.

He was eager to fight for the sake of Allah, and spreading the call of Islam in the neighboring countries, such as the Armenians and the Romans.

The spirit of Islamic Jihad was the driving engine of the conquests carried out by Alp Arslan which gave it a religious tone. The leader of the Seljuk was keen to support Islam and spread the word of God.

When Arslan was assured that he had established peace and security in all the regions and countries under his control, he planned to achieve his distant goals. He invaded the north of the Levant and besieged the Mardasian state in Aleppo, founded by Salah bin Mirdas. He forced the Emir Mahmud bin Saleh bin Mirdas to pledge allegiance for the Abbasid Caliph instead of the Fatimid caliph.

The conquests of Alp Arslan enraged the Roman Emperor Romanos Diogenes. He was determined to carry out a counter-movement to defend his empires. His forces entered into skirmishes and battles with the Seljuk forces, the most important of which was the Battle of Manzikert in 463 AH, August 1071.

Sultan Alp Arslan did not take much satisfaction in what he achieved nor did he reap the fruits of his victory and his conquests. He was killed a year and a half after the Battle of Manzikert at the hands of a rebel at the age of forty-four on the 10th of Rabee I 465 AH corresponding to 29th November 1072 AD. He was succeeded by his son Malik-Shah, known for his great military achievements in the fifth century AH.

Abu Al-Qassim Al-Zahrawi

On the eighth day of Ramadan in 573 AH, al-Zahrawi, the man who taught Europe medicine, died. He was a Muslim doctor who taught medicine to Europe.

Al-Zahrawi was not only a scientist whose name appeared in the books of medicine and history, but his knowledge continued until today, being the first teacher of all the doctors of the world in modern times, although the time period between him and them is more than 10 centuries.

He is Abu al-Qassim Khalaf ibn Abbas al-Zahrawi, a Muslim physician from al-Zahra in Andalusia, born in 936 AD and died in 1013 AH.

For 500 years, Zahrawi’s books were the main medical references in Europe including “Kitab al-Tasrif,” a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medical practices. Each volume looking at a branch of medicine except volume 30, where he devoted it to the art of surgery, which he called the hand industry.

Al-Zahrawi invented a tool called the ironing tool to eliminate damaged tissue by ironing. In the absence of electricity at the time, the heater was used to heat a metal piece then placed on the infected area, thus freezing the tissue and stopping the bleeding. It was also possible to stop bleeding of small vessels.

Zahrawi excelled in the art of surgery until his surgical work became the first reference for Arab and European doctors. He was the first to recognize the need to connect the arteries before amputations or during surgery to prevent hemorrhage. He was the first to introduce cotton in medical use.