[RobbyS]

When the Jews in Spain were expelled, they sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire. These exiles did not, of course, have kind feelings for the Spanish.

I am often surprised that so few Americans know that not ,only were then Turks a European power but that they were by far the greatest Power, that their empire was as large as the old Roman Empire, that even the Barbary Pirates were a very significant military power who more held their own against the Western Powers down to the 19th Century.

[jjotto]

...few Americans know that not only were the Turks a European power but that they were by far the greatest Power, that their empire was as large as the old Roman Empire...

Yep. And few know the Turks sided with the losing side in World War I and lost the Land of Israel to the British. Muslim Ottomans had ruled Israel for 400 hundred years, and Egypt-based Muslims had ruled the area for several hundred years before that.