Their forefathers may have converted to Islam under Ottoman rule, but behind closed doors they kept their old Catholic practices.

ECONOMIST: A surprising story of Muslim converts to Christianity

Under Ottoman rule, it is believed this rock was used to execute people - marching them to the end of the platform, then pushing them off to meet their grizzly death on the rocks of the valley far below.

BBC: Part II: The road to Bethlehem

On that day the musketry and artillery of Selim the Grim, the Ottoman sultan, blasted to shreds the sword-wielding cavalry of Egypt's 250-year-old Mamluk sultanate, opening the way to 400 years of Ottoman Turkish rule over all but the peripheries of the Arab world.

ECONOMIST: The history of the Arabic-speaking peoples

Serbia's defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 ushered in centuries of rule by the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

BBC: Kosovo profile

Religious conservatives have become increasingly assertive since the ruling Justice and Development Party led by Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept to power in 2003 pledging to build an Islam-infused democracy and seeking to rehabilitate an Ottoman past long-discredited for decades during an iron-fisted secular rule.

WSJ: Turkish Pianist Receives Suspended Jail Sentence