Today is Monday; 31st of the Iranian month of Tir 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 19th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa’dah 1440 lunar hijri; and July 22, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1181 solar years ago, on this day in 838 AD, the Muslims inflicted a shattering defeat on the Byzantine Christian army and its allies, the Kurdish and Persian Khurramites, in the Battle of Anzen – also known as Dazimon – which was fought in Anatolia in what is now Dazman in Turkey. The hostilities were started by Byzantine emperor, Theophilos, the previous year when he raided and occupied several Muslim border towns. In retaliation, a Muslim army of Arabs, Persians and Turks, was sent from Abbasid Baghdad under command of the Iranian general, Afshin Khaydaar bin Kavous who a year earlier as governor of Azarbaijan and Armenia had crushed the rebellion of Babak Khorramdin and captured him. The Muslim plan was to seize Amorion (Ammuriye in Arabic), one of the largest cities of the Eastern Roman Empire. Emperor Theophilos personally led a huge Christian army that included Asian and European contingents, the elite “Tagmata” regiments, and a regiment called the "Persian Tourma" made up of Iranian and Kurdish apostates under Nasr, who along with 16,000 had converted to Christianity and baptized himself as Theophobos. In the initial stages, the Byzantine force was successful, but it broke ranks and fled when General Afshin's horse-archers launched a fierce counter-attack. Emperor Theophilos and his guard were besieged on a hill, before managing to flee all the way to the capital Constantinople. It was one of the most disastrous blows the Byzantines had suffered, and a few weeks later the Muslims captured Amorion – whose ruins are located near the village of Hisarkoy, Turkey.

563 solar years ago, on this day in 1456 AD, Ottoman Sultan, Mohammad II, suffered a defeat during his siege of Belgrade, three years after his capture of Constantinople that ended the Byzantine Empire. Hungarian warlord, John Hunyadi, led the counterattack on the Turks in which the Sultan was wounded and forced to retreat. This stopped the Muslim advance towards the heart of Christian Europe for 70 years until the fall of Belgrade to the Turks in 1521, although in the preceding years, the Ottomans continued to tighten their hold on the Balkans.

406 solar years ago, on this day in 1613 AD, with the coronation of Mikhail Romanov, the second and last imperial dynasty of Russia until the February 1917 Revolution that abolished the monarchy, began its rule. The later history of this dynasty is referred to as the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, since the direct line of the Romanovs ended with Peter II, and after an era of dynastic crisis, the throne of Russia went to Peter I’s maternal grandson, the son of the German Duke of Holstein-Gottorp – a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg – who in 1762 ascended the Russian throne as Peter III. The repressive rule of the Czars worsened the plight of the Russian people, resulting in political and economic problems that led to the uprising that deposed Nicolas II in 1917. Later that year, the uprising of the Russian people was hijacked by the communists led by Vladimir Lenin, who established the far more repressive socialist regime that collapsed in 1991. From the 18th century, expansionist Russia continued to attack and occupy large parts of the Ottoman and Iranian empires, in addition to occupation of the Muslim lands of Central Asia.

371 solar years ago, on this day in 1648 AD, Some 10,000 Jews of Polannoe in Poland were killed by forces of the Cossack Bogdan Chmielnicki, for their treason against Christianity and their slandering of Prophet Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

280 solar years ago, on this day in 1739 AD, an Ottoman army defeated the Holy Roman Emperor's troops at the Battle of Crocyka in the Balkans and proceeded to retake Belgrade. The Austrians were forced to cede northern Serbia and part of Romania to the Turks.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, Zionist terrorists that included Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir – later to become premiers of the usurper state of Israel – blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Bayt ol-Moqaddas, which housed British administrative offices. Over 90 people were killed, including 28 Englishmen, Arabs and Jews. The terrorists were members of a Zionist outfit called Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel), earlier known as the Stern Gang.

58 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, France landed 7,000 troops on Bizerte, in Northeast Tunisia, following the blockade of this port city by the Tunisian army and navy, after the French refused to evacuate it. Due to Bizerte's strategic location on the Mediterranean Sea, France had kept control of Bizerte even after Tunisia gained its independence in 1956. The three day battle resulted in over 700 dead and 1,300 wounded. The French military finally abandoned Bizerte on 15 October 1963.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Iran conducted a successful Shahab 3 missile test with a medium-range of 1,250 km as part of efforts for self-sufficiency in the defence field.

17 solar years ago, on this day in 2002 AD, while Palestinian women and children were asleep at night, Zionist aircraft attacked the Gaza Strip with F-16 jetfighters, martyring Commander of the armed wing of the Hamas Movement, Sheikh Salah Shahadeh, along with 16 civilians, while over 150 others sustained injuries. Nine innocent children were among the martyrs of this air raid. Sheikh Salah Shahadeh, who was martyred in this terrorist attack along with his wife and daughter, had spent a total of 12 years in the Zionist regime’s dungeons and was tortured on several occasions.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2003 AD, Uday and Qusay, the two bloodthirsty sons of Saddam, the ousted brutal dictator of the Ba'th minority regime of Iraq, were gunned down in the vicinity of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul by their own former benefactors, the Americans, while trying to flee the country along with other officials. Uday and Qusay were involved in many of the heinous crimes committed by Saddam against the Iraqi people and maintained important portfolios while their father was in power.

AS/SS