Today is Friday; 1st of the Iranian month of Mordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 17th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1437 lunar hijri; and July 22, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1432 lunar years ago, on this day in 5 AH, the Battle of Khandaq or Ditch, also known as the Battle of Ahzaab or Confederates, which a 10,000-strong joint force of Arab infidels and Israelites had imposed upon Muslims by laying siege to Medina as part of the plot to kill Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), ended in decisive victory for Islam, thanks to the valour of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). To defend the city against the mighty horde led by Abu Sufyan, the archenemy of Islam, the Muslims dug a ditch around the sensitive parts of Medina on the suggestion of Salman Farsi, the Prophet's Iranian companion. When the joint Arab-Israelite force arrived, it was surprised to see a ditch around Medina, and decided to besiege the city in order to break the will of the Muslims. As days passed and no breakdown of moral occurred in Medina, the fearsome Arab pagan warlord, Amr ibn Abduwad, along with some of his accomplices, leapt his horse across the ditch at its narrowest point and challenged the terrified Muslims to personal combat. None of the companions of the Prophet dared to rise up against this veritable giant who had a nasty reputation of physical strength, except for Imam Ali (AS). A duel took place, and the Imam, despite receiving a wound on his forehead, knocked out Amr to the ground. At this moment, the fallen foe, turned out to be a coward, and spat at the Imam in a bid to avoid certain death. On this insult, Imam Ali (AS) gently withdrew to allow his emotions to cool down so that personal feelings do not mix up with pure and sincere jihad in the way of God. The Arab infidel rose to his feet and renewed the life-and-death struggle, but this time the flashing sword of Imam Ali (AS), the famous double-bladed Zul-Feqar, made short work of the opponent who fell down dead to the ground. He then scattered the companions of Amr, and this valorous feat sent shivers down the spine of the Arab-Israelite hordes, making them break ranks and flee. The Prophet expressed the famous hadith this day: "The Stroke of Ali on the Day of Khandaq is superior to the worship of mankind and jinn."

1230 lunar years ago, on this day in 207 AH, Abu Salt al-Harawi, the loyal servant and companion of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), passed away at the age of 45 and was laid to rest in the environs of holy Mashhad, where a shrine stands today and is a site of pilgrimage. Born in the holy city of Medina in an Iranian family from the Khorasani city of Herat, as is indicated by his surname ‘Harawi”, his name was Abdus-Salaam, the son of Saleh bin Sulayman bin Ayoub. He had the honour of meeting Imam Reza (AS) in Medina, and became a loyal disciple to him, never separating until the 8^th Imam’s martyrdom in Tous, Khorasan. He also holds the honour of being a narrator of Hadith from Imam Reza (AS). He has reported on the matchless virtues of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt and travelled over Hijaz, and to Yemen, Basra, Kufa, and through Khorasan to report narrations. Another of his virtues was that he used to debate the Murji'ya, the Jahmiya and the Qadariya sects regarding the genuine teachings of Islam. Aba Salt was the lone person at the side of the 8^th Imam on his martyrdom through poisoning by the Abbasid caliph Ma’moun. After the Imam’s martyrdom, he was imprisoned by Ma’moun and escaped from the prison following the miraculous appearance of the 9^th Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS), after he had supplicated to God for release. According to the famous bibliographer an-Najashi he had compiled a book on the martyrdom of the 8^th Imam titled “Maqtal ar-Reza”.

1180 lunar years ago, on this day in 257 AH, the Godless Ali bin Mohammad, a person of obscure origin and said to be a descendant of slaves, who styled himself Sahib az-Zanj or Leader of the black-skinned people of East African origin, entered the Iraqi port city of Basra, after his sedition met with failure in Bahrain, and launched a general massacre of the populace, burning entire localities including the Jame’ Mosque, where he killed the eminent grammarian Abbas bin Faraj Riyyashi while in prayer. He is said to have lived for a while in the Abbasid capital, Samarra, where he mixed with some of the influential slaves of Caliph Muntasir and saw the deep financial discrimination among Muslim citizens as a result of state policy. He then moved to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, where he pretended to be Shi’ite or follower of the household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), in order to rouse the people into rebellion against the caliphate. His following grew so large that land taxes were collected in his name, but the rebellion eventually failed, and he relocated to Basra. Here he claimed himself to be a Kharijite or renegade from Islam and started collecting around him the bonded labourers of the marshlands. Soon, supported by the Arab Bedouin as well as black-skinned people, he styled himself Emir and embarked on plunder, death and destruction. His rebellion, which coincided with the secession of Egypt by Ahmad ibn Toloun and Yaqoub bin Laith Saffar’s uprising in Iran, lasted 14 years, during which he seized southern Iraq up to Wasset and parts of Iran’s Khuzestan, defeating several armies sent by the Abbasd caliphs, until he was defeated and killed in 267 AH. He left a trail of destruction and famine, with agricultural lands desolate and as many as half-a-million people killed. It is interesting to note that the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), prophesied the revolt of Saheb az-Zanj two centuries earlier, citing Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) as his source of information, as is evident from the following passage in Sermon 127 of the Nahj al-Balaghah:

“O' Ahnaf! It is as though I see him advancing with an army which has neither dust nor noise, nor rustling of reins, nor neighing of horses. They are trampling the ground with their feet as if they are the feet of ostriches.”

1178 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.

560 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.

403 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 18^th 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.

277 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.

233 solar years ago, on this day in 1783 AD, the Russians, taking advantage of the weakness of Iran, flexed their military muscles in the Caucasus by declaring Georgia as their protectorate. The Georgians, which for over two millenniums were part of the Persian Empire, were banned from maintaining direct relations with either Iran or the Ottoman Turks.

174 lunar years ago, on this day in 1263 AH, the eminent scholar, Seyyed Ibrahim Karbalai, passed away in the holy city of Karbala In Iraq at the age of 49. Born in Iran, after preliminary studies at his homeland, he left for Iraq, where in holy Karbala he spent the rest of his life, studying and lecturing on Islamic sciences. Among the books remaining from this Islamic scholar, mention can be made of "Dala’el al-Ahkaam", and "Treatises on Hajj Pilgrimage".

151 lunar years ago, on this day in 1286 AH, the prominent scholar Seyyed Mohammad Quli Kintoori passed away near Lucknow in northern India. Scion of a scholarly family from Naishapur in Khorasan, Iran, which had migrated to India and settled in Barabankavi and the town of Kintoor, he is the author of “Burhan as-Sa`adah”, and “Taqlib al-Maka’ed”, which are refutations of the 7^th and 12^th Chapters respectively of the seditious book of Shah Abdul-Aziz Dehlavi against the beliefs of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) titled “Tuhfeye- Ithna Ashariyyah”. He served in the judicial branch as a civil servant of the court of law, and presided as judge at the High Court of Meerut, where he authored the treatise “Adalat al-Alawiyya” on the exemplary judgements of Imam Ali (AS), the first Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He also authored the book “Thathir al-Mu'minin an Najasat al-Mushrikin”. He strove to implement the Imami legal system in the kingdom of Awadh ruled by a family of Naishapur Seyyeds of Iranian origin, and adopted the code of governmental laws of the erstwhile Qotb Shahi kingdom of Golkandah-Haiderabad in the Deccan or southern India, ruled by an Iranian family from Hamedan. Mohammad Quli Kintoori was the father of the celebrated Ayatollah Seyyed Hamed Hussain Musavi the author of the famous book “Abaqaat al-Anwaar” on the merits of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, as mentioned in the holy Qur'an by God Almighty and the Hadith.   

70 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.

55 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.

14 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.

13 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.