Today is Saturday, 29th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 1st of the Islamic month of Safar 1439 lunar hijri; and October 21, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1682 solar years ago, on this day in 335 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine I, following his conversion to Christianity – the cult invented by Paul the Hellenized Jew and falsely attributed to Prophet Jesus (AS) – enacted rules against Jews. One of the laws stated that if a Jew buys and circumcises a Christian slave (or of any other sect), he shall on no account retain the circumcised in slavery, but he who suffered this shall acquire the privileges of liberty. It is forbidden for a Jew to harass or attack on anyone who converts to Christianity from Judaism. The insult should be punished according to the nature of the crime committed.

1402 lunar years ago, on this day in 37 AH, the Siffin War was started by the Omayyad rebel, Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, as a result of his refusal to step down, following his dismissal from the governorship of the Province of Syria by the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (AS) the First Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The war that lasted four months was fought in the region called Siffin, besides the River Euphrates in what is now the Reqqa District in Syria, a short distance from the city of Aleppo. In the final battle of the Siffin War, when Mu’awiyah was on the verge of defeat, his comrade-in-crimes, Amr Ibn al-Aas, ordered the Omayyad troops to raise on spear-points, what he claimed to be copies of the holy Qur’an, in order to deceive the people and sue for peace. Despite the warnings of Imam Ali (AS), many among his forces were deceived and refused to continue the battle against the demoralized enemy troops. These gullible people forced the Imam to enter into arbitration with Mu’awiyah, and when the result turned out against their nefarious desires, they openly rebelled against the Prophet’s rightful successor. These misled people called Khwarej or renegades are considered outside the pale of Islam. It is an irony of Islamic history that Mu’awiyah, who had reluctantly accepted Islam to save his life at the fall of Mecca to Muslims two years before the passing away of the Prophet; was made governor of the newly conquered Christian majority province of Syria. Here, through propaganda and forging of hadith, he built a strong base against the Ahl al-Bayt. After the martyrdom of Imam Ali (AS), he seized the caliphate from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS) through deceit, thus laying the groundwork for the Godless Omayyad Dynasty that terrorized Muslims for 91 years.

1378 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, some 20 days after the heartrending tragedy of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the captive children and womenfolk of the Blessed Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), along with the heads of martyrs, mounted on spear-points, were brought to Damascus in fetters to the court of the Godless Yazid Ibn Mu’awiyah – the self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime. The Omayyads decorated the bazaars and streets to mock at the Prophet’s noble family members. They celebrated the occasion as a day of festivity. Nonetheless, despite the severe sufferings, the noble captives, including Hazrat Ruqayya (SA), the less-than-four-year daughter of Imam Husain (AS), bore themselves with dignity. Yazid rejoiced, saying he had avenged the blood of his infidel ancestors, killed in the battles they had imposed on the Prophet at Badr and Ohad. The Imam’s sister, Hazrat Zainab (SA) and the Imam’s son and successor, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), delivered memorable sermons at Yazid’s court and the Great Mosque, to expose Omayyad blasphemy against the Prophet's grandson and Ahl al-Bayt. The conscience of the Syrian people was thus aroused, alarming Yazid and making him release the noble captives.

1252 lunar years ago, on this day in 187 AH, the vizier, Ja’far Ibn Yahya Barmaki was killed by his own boon companion, the crafty tyrant, Haroun Rasheed, who styled himself as the 5th caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. Haroun imprisoned other members of the family, thus ending the over 55-year domination of the Barmakids, who were of Iranian origin from Balkh, and who after helping the Abbasids to usurp the caliphate, had for three generations headed administrative affairs. Their downfall was because of court intrigues by fellow Iranian commanders from Khorasan.

921 solar years ago, on this day in 1096 AD, Sultan Qilij Arsalan of the Seljuq Sultanate of Roum (in Asia Minor), soundly defeated the first attempt by a large army of Christians of Western Europe to invade Muslim lands in the east. Known as the People's Crusade or the Peasants Crusade, a 40,000 strong force of thugs, robbers and killers from France, Germany, Italy and other lands marched overland towards and through the Byzantine territories, pillaging, killing, and robbing towns that lay in their path. The main reason for this military march of the marauders, calling themselves ‘pilgrims to Palestine’ was drought, famine, and plague afflicting France and Germany for many years, and most of them seemed to have envisioned the crusade as an escape from these hardships. The trek to the east started in April 1096 and the first victims of these killers were the Jews that had ventured out of the safety of Muslim lands to settle among Christians. Some 4,000 Jewish men, women and children were slaughtered, while the remaining were driven to suicide or forced to convert to Christianity. Then they killed 4,000 Hungarian Christians living under the jurisdiction of the Byzantine Empire, a crime that brought swift wrath upon them from the emperor’s forces who massacred 10,000 of these marauding crusaders. The Byzantines then thought of a plan to use them against the Turks and transported the remaining 30,000 Germans, French, and Italians to Asia Minor. Here, near the village of Dracon, in what is now southwestern Turkey, these crusaders were completely routed by the Muslim defenders, and of those captured and wished to remain alive, Sultan Qilij Arsalan spared their life on condition of becoming Muslims and sent them to Khorasan in northeastern Iran.

920 solar years ago, on this day in 1097 AD, the first organized Crusade made up of Christian knights and experienced warriors under the joint command of Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV of Toulouse, began the siege of the Syrian city of Antioch, which is now in Turkey. This military expedition led by Catholic Europe was organized by Pope Urban II with the goal of responding to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who requested that west European Christians come to his aid to fight the Seljuq Sultanate of Asia Minor. The organized force caught the Muslims by surprise and besieged Antioch, which fell to them some 8 months later, because of the over-confidence of the Turkish defenders, who viewed this batch of experienced warriors as another of the Peasants’ Army that they had defeated a year earlier. In brief, the Crusader invaders marched south along the coast, occupying several cities, and in 1099 seized the Islamic holy city of Bayt al-Moqaddas from the Ismaili Shi’ite Fatemid Dynasty of Egypt-North Africa, massacring some 70,000 Muslim men, women and children, including local Christians and Jews.

689 solar years ago, on this day in 1328 AD was born in a peasant family, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who in 1368 established the Ming Dynasty and went on to liberate China from the rule of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Known as Hongwu, he rose to command the forces that seized the Mongol capital Khanbaliq (modern Beijing). During his 30-year rule, he transformed China into a major power, and although born a Buddhist, he embraced the Confucian doctrine, and showed inclination towards Islam. He ordered construction of several mosques in Nanjing, Yunnan, Guangdong, Xijing and Fujian, and had inscriptions praising the Prophet of Islam placed in them. He rebuilt the Jinjue Mosque in his capital Nanjing, and large numbers of the Muslim Hui people moved to the city during his rule. He had some ten Muslim generals in his military, including Chang Yuchun, Lan Yu, Ding Dexing, Mu Ying, Feng Sheng and Hu Dahai. He personally wrote a 100-word praise (called baizizan) on Islam, Allah and Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

245 solar years ago, on this day in 1772 AD, English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born. He and his friend William Wordsworth were among the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and later identified, along with Robert Southey, as the Lake School of poets. Coleridge’s work included "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Frost at Midnight" and "Kubla Khan". In his later life he authored the "Bibliographia Literaria", a work of literary theory.

227 solar years ago, on this day in 1790 AD, French poet, Alphonse de Lamartine, was born. He is famous in regard to poetic delicacy and his major book is “Poetic Imaginations”. He traveled to the east and stayed a while in Beirut, and later penned a book titled Eastern Journey. He died in 1869.

212 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, the Battle of Trafalgar took place near the Strait of Gibraltar, in which the British fleet, commanded by Horatio Nelson, defeated the combined French-Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under Admiral Villeneuve. It signaled the end of French maritime power and left Britain's navy unchallenged until the 20th century. Though Nelson died in the battle, this was the first major defeat for French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte.

184 solar years ago, on this day in 1833 AD, Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel, was born. He invented dynamite for the purpose of exploration. Contrary to his expectations, when European powers used dynamite in wars, which led to the massacre of a large number of people, Nobel resented the misuse of his invention and allocated all his wealth to a peace prize. He intended to hand over this prize to those who render valuable services in literary and scientific domains, and promote global peace. But, in violation of his wishes, today the Nobel Peace Prize has been politicized and turned into a means for promotion of the West’s domineering, divisive, exploitative and murderous policies.

138 solar years ago, on this day in 1879 AD, Thomas A. Edison successfully demonstrated the first durable and commercially practical electric light bulb at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. This model lasted 40 hours before burning out. The idea of electric lighting was not new; several people, including Joseph Swan, had worked on and even developed forms of electric lighting. However, nothing durable had been developed that was practical for home use. The difficulty was finding a suitable material for the filament. Edison tested over 6,000 vegetable growths (baywood, boxwood, hickory, cedar, flax, bamboo) as filament material. After one and a half years of work, after spending $40,000, and performing 1,200 experiments, success was achieved when an incandescent lamp with a filament of carbonized sewing thread was made.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, workers and personnel of Iran’s oil industry went on a nationwide strike against the Shah’s despotic regime. As a result, Iran’s oil exports came to a halt, depriving the regime of its most important revenues. Moreover, the severance of Iran’s oil exports led to sharp oil price hikes. The Shah’s regime through its scaremongering policies, tried to force the oil industry workers to return to their jobs, but they refused to do so. The strike of Iran’s oil industry personnel continued until the ouster of the British-installed and US-backed Shah, thanks to the people’s revolutionary zeal and their tolerance of oil shortages.

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, commander of Palestine’s naval units, Brigadier General Mundhir Abu-Ghazalah, was assassinated by agents of the Zionist spying agency, Mossad, through a car bomb blast in Athens, Greece.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, Indian ‘Peace-keeping Forces’ attacked Jaffna Hospital in Sri Lanka, massacring 70 ethnic Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, Iranian poet and scholar, Javad Qawwampour, passed away at the age of 77. Born in Semnan, he learned Islamic eschatology and has left a 2-volume collection of poems, titled “Niday-e Dil” (Voice of the Heart).

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, Head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani passed away at the age of 83. As a disciple of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), he strove against the despotic regime of the Shah, and after establishment of the Islamic Republic, he served as Acting Prime Minister from 2 September until 29 October 1981. Before that, he was Minister of Interior and Minister of Justice in the cabinets of Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. He was the leader of Combatant Ulema Association and founder and president of Imam Sadeq (AS) University.

AS/ME