And when the Jews in Spain are expelled, in 1492, many of them come to Istanbul where it is official policy to welcome them. Mehmed launches into a busy building programme, founding several mosques and beginning Topkapi Sarayi in 1462 as his own palace. Constantinople, transformed into Istanbul, is set to be a great imperial centre again. It has exchanged one empire for another, Byzantine for Ottoman. Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/...#ixzz19wMy9q3R