Just as during the early conquests of the Muslim armies in the seventh and eighth centuries, some people in Christian states welcomed the Turks in order to escape religious persecution, this time at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. The Ottoman policy of “live and let live” stood in contrast to the intolerance that Orthodox Christians and other religious minorities faced under the Church. Balkan peasants captured this mood with the saying “Better the turban of the Turk than the tiara of the Pope.”

XREF: Connects to broader patterns of religious minorities choosing more tolerant overlords, parallel to earlier Muslim conquest welcome.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 75