Today is Tuesday, 29th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1393 solar hijri; corresponding to 26th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah 1435 lunar hijri; and October 21, 2014, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
918 solar years ago, on this day in 1096 AD, Sultan Qilij Arsalan of the Seljuq Sultanate of Roum (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 distant Khorasan in northeastern Iran.
917 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.
876 lunar years ago, on this day in 559 AH, the religious scholar and literary figure, Abu’l-Fazael Amedi, was born in the Iraqi city of Waset. In Baghdad he mastered theology, jurisprudence, literature, and mathematics. He was an excellent poet and passed away in his hometown at the age of 49.
686 solar years ago, on this day in 1328 AD, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty (in 1368), who liberated China from the rule of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, was born in a peasant family. Also 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 the construction of several mosques in Nanjing, Yunnan, Guangdong, Xijing and Fujian, and had inscriptions praising Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) 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 (baizizan) on Islam, Allah and the Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
224 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.
209 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.
181 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, 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 in regard to promotion of 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.
36 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.
28 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, the commander of Palestine’s naval units, Brigadier General Mundhir Abu-Ghazalah, was assassinated by terrorists of the Zionist regime’s spying agency, Mossad, through a car bomb blast in Athens, Greece.
27 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.

(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)