The Ottoman Empire, now modern day Turkey once controlled all of the Middle East. Darius the great conquered all the lands all the way to India. This land was called Persia. So in essence Turkey was the Middle East. This was before the coming of Mohammad, and happened around 400 B.C I'm not exact on the date. Under Darius lineage Persia tried to advance west where they happened upon a Macedonian named Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great conquered them but in order to keep supply's flowing to his army he kept the conquered leaders state powers intact thus the king or queen remained a leader in the province. So the Persian Empire never really went away life went on as usual.