Today is Friday; 19th of the Iranian month of Aban 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 21st of the Islamic month of Safar 1439 lunar hijri; and November 10, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

815 solar years ago, on this day in 1202 AD, during the Fourth Crusade, Christian hordes from Western Europe, unable to confront the might of Muslims, began the siege of the Catholic city of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia). Pope Innocent III had mobilised forces on the pretext of invading Palestine through Egypt, but his Catholic hordes never ventured near any Muslim territory and instead indulged in sectarian sedition by attacking fellow Christians of the Byzantine Empire. In April 1204, the Crusaders invaded and sacked the Orthodox Christian city of Constantinople, which is seen as one of the final acts in the Great Schism between the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, and a key turning point in the decline of the empire and of Christianity in the Asian parts of the empire. The crusaders established the short-lived Latin Empire (1204–1261) and other "Latin" states in the Byzantine lands they conquered. Byzantine resistance in unconquered sections of the empire such as Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus ultimately liberated the capital and overthrew the crusader states. The Fourth Crusade is considered to be the last major campaign of the Crusades, and marked an end to any further serious attempts at invading the Muslim land of Palestine.

573 solar years ago, on this day in 1444 AD, the Ottoman army under Sultan Murad II inflicted a crushing defeat on the combined Hungarian and Polish armies commanded by Władysław III of Poland and Hunyadi Janos of Hungary in the Battle of Varna in eastern Bulgaria. It was the final battle of the Crusade of Varna and King Wladyslaw was killed. The Turks captured some 80 thousand prisoners. This was one of the most important events in European history and established Muslim rule over a large part of southeastern Europe.

550 solar years ago, on this day in 1467 AD, Muzaffar od-Din Jahan Shah, the most powerful king of the Qara Qoyounlu (Black Sheep) Turkoman dynasty, was killed at the age of 70 in the Battle of Chapakchur near Lake Van in present day Turkey by the army of Uzun Hassan of the rival Aq Qoyounlu (White Sheep) dynasty of Anatolia, after a reign of almost 30 years. Jahan Shah, who had expanded his kingdom to include Iraq, the southern Caucasus, western Anatolia, and northwestern and central Iran, was an able administrator. He was buried in his capital Tabriz, which he had greatly embellished and built the theological schools of Gok-Madrasah and Muzafferiyya. With his death the almost century long sway of the Qara Qoyounlu Turks, who were staunch followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, came to its end. Scions of the Qara-Qoyounlu migrated to the Deccan (southern India), where Sultan Quli of Hamedan rose to become the governor of Telangana in the 1470s under the Bahmani Dynasty of Iranian origin, with the title of Qotb ol-Mulk, and in 1512 founded the Persianate Qotb-Shahi Dynasty of Golkandah entitling himself Sultan Quli Qotb-Shah. The Qotb-Shahis, who built the city of Haiderabad, maintained excellent relations with Iran and considered the Safavid monarchs as Emperors till their downfall in 1687 at the hands of Aurangzeb the Mughal Emperor of the northern subcontinent.

534 solar years ago, on this day in 1483 AD, German religious dissident, Martin Luther, was born. He became a priest in his youth. Following completion of his academic studies, he lectured on philosophy. He strongly disputed the claim of the Catholic Church that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. In 1517, he formally started his protest against injustices of the Church by writing his famous “Ninety-Five Theses”. His refusal to retract all his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V resulted in his excommunication by the pope. His translation of the Bible from Latin into the spoken language made it more accessible and led to the development of a standard version of the German language. Luther wrote that since the Israelites betrayed Prophet Jesus (peace upon him) and continue to slander the Virgin Mary (peace upon her), all Jewish homes should be destroyed, their synagogues burned, and their wealth confiscated., and broke the Catholic law by translating the Bible into German, thereby launching the protestant movement, now known as the Protestant sect of Christianity. His ideas led to wars and political and sectarian upheavals in Europe, especially Germany. Thomas More, English lawyer, social philosopher, who was a bitter opponent of the Protestant Movement, ridiculed Martin Luther as a heretic in the book "Responsio ad Lutherum". Martin Luther died in 1546.

437 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, after a three-day siege, the English Army brutally beheaded over 600 Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, in Ireland.

416 lunar years ago, on this day in 1023 AH, Jahan Ara Begum, the eldest daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan and his Iranian wife, Empress Mumtaz Mahal, was born. She was highly educated and well versed in Persian and Arabic, and was a writer, painter and poet. She was active in state affairs and favoured her brother, Dara Shikoh, the heir-designate, who was killed by her younger brother, the future Emperor Aurangzeb. On her father's imprisonment in the fort of Agra by Aurangzeb, she devotedly served him and after his death was reluctantly reconciled with Aurangzeb. She remained a spinster and died at the age of 68 in Delhi.

388 lunar years ago, on this day in 1051 AH, the prominent Muslim scientist and theologian, Baha od-Din Mohammad Ibn Hussain al-Ameli, known popularly as Shaikh Bahai, completed the writing of the book “Miftah al-Falah” (Keys to Welfare). This excellent manual of prayers and supplications has been translated several times into Persian. The best translation is the one undertaken over three centuries ago by the migrant Iranian scholar to the court of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Haiderabad-Deccan in India, Ali bin Tayfour Bastami, and recently printed in Iran. Among the translations in Iran mention could be made of the one done by Sadra-e Tabrizi. The Arabic text of “Miftah al-Falah” has been published several times in Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt.

358 solar years ago, on this day in 1659 AD, Afzal Khan, the famous general of eastern Iranian origin of the Adel-Shahi dynasty of Bijapur in the Deccan (southern India), was treacherously murdered by the Maratha rebel, Shivaji, during a supposedly unarmed meeting between the two sides for submission to the central authority and end of insurgency. The incident occurred near Pratapgarh in what is now the state of Maharashtra after a series of victories by Afzal Khan over the Marathas. Weakened by insurgency, the Adel-Shahi dynasty, a Persianate state founded by Iranian adventurer from Saveh, Yousuf Adel Khan in the closing years of the 15th century as the first kingdom in the Subcontinent to officially adopt the School of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) or Shi’ite Islam as official creed, collapsed in 1686 when attacked by Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb.

132 solar years ago, on this day in 1885 AD, the first ever motorcycle, designed by Gottlieb Daimler, made its debut. The frame and wheels were made of wood, while a leather belt transferred power from the engine to large brass gears mounted to the rear wheel. The leather saddle wasn't very comfortable since there was no suspension (front or rear). The top speed for the single cylinder motorcycle was 12 km per hour. It was built as an experimental vehicle to test the new Daimler engine, which was to power Daimler's first motorized carriage the next year.

105 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, France and Spain started their colonial rule over Morocco by dividing between them this Muslim land, a move that angered the people and led to armed struggle for liberation. Morocco gained its independence from the colonial rule of France and Spain in the year 1956.

97 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House", premiered in New York. A critic of the existing western social order, he was famous for his positive remarks on Islam.

“If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam."

“I have always held the religion of (Prophet) Mohammad (SAWA) in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity.”

“I have prophesied about the faith of (Prophet) Mohammad (SAWA) that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1938 AD, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Ottoman military officer and 1^st President of the Republic of Turkey, died at the age of 57. He forced the Turkish Muslim people to change their centuries-old writing of the Turkish language from the Arabic-Persian alphabet to the Latin script. The goal was to deprive Turkey and the Turks of their Islamic identity and make them culturally subordinate to Europe. Mustafa Kamal, who styled himself as Ataturk (Father of Turks), in addition to forcibly replacing the traditional dress of the Turkish people with the European style of dressing, banned recitation of the “Azan” (Call to Prayer) from mosques. Although these laic measures harmed Turkish Muslims and for several decades made them subservient to the West, they failed to undermine their strong faith in Islam.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, heavy fighting in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning Dutch colonialists after the defeat of Japan in World War II, resulted in victory for the Muslims. The day is celebrated as Hari Pahlawan or Heroes' Day in Indonesia.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1954 AD, Dr. Seyyed Hussein Fatemi, who served as foreign minister in the cabinet of Iranian prime minister, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq', was executed by the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. Following the US-orchestrated coup of August 19, 1953 and dismissal of Mosaddeq, he was arrested on the Shah's order.

42 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, the UN General Assembly in a historic move approved Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism, in view of the blatant discrimination against Palestinians by the usurper state of Israel. It was adopted by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions). It said: “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” Because of US pressures and threats from Western Europe, coupled with treason from Arab reactionary regimes, this fair and just resolution was repealed in December 1991 by Resolution 4686.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Saddam’s Ba’thist forces occupied the southwestern Iranian port of Khorramshahr after a month-and-a-half of stiff resistance by the defenders, following the unprovoked invasion of the country on September 22. The Battle of Khorramshahr, because of the brutality against civilians by the Ba’thists made the Iranians to call the city ‘Khooninshahr,’ (City of Blood). Battles were fought house-to-house, floor-to-floor, and room-to-room. Khorramshahr, which used to be one of the world's major port cities, was completely devastated by Saddam’s forces, with very few buildings left intact. The city was finally liberated by Iran’s Muslim combatants on 24^th May 1982 during Operation Bayt al-Moqaddas.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, Soviet Leader, Leonid Brezhnev, died at the age of 76 after 16 years in power as General-Secretary of the Communist Party, following his ouster of Nikita Khrushchev. He was a conservative politician, and adopted the détente policy, in an effort to avoid any atomic confrontation with the US. The 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and the December 1979 occupation of Afghanistan took place during his term in office.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) was awarded the "Man for Peace" prize in Rome at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Born in London in 1948 to a Greek Cypriot father and a Swedish mother, and named Steven Demetre Georgiou, he formally converted to Islam in 1977 after studying the holy Qur’an. An accomplished musician by profession, his staunch faith in Islam has often earned him the ire of anti-Muslim groups.

AS/SS