Today in the year 1009, the Fatimid Caliph Al Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction in Jerusalem of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which stood at Golgotha, the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. Mysteriously, many clerics in Europe chose to blame Jews for this desecration, inciting pogroms and driving Jewish communities out of some cities in France.
Simmering rage over the destruction of the church stimulated the movement to conquer and secure the Holy Land, which would develop into the First Crusade later that century. (See "Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse", Jay Rubenstein, 2011)
