59000 initially, then 80000 more and 10000 orphans. I deeply wish more were saved.

I alluded to it but got downvoted by morons who, for some reason, dislike historical facts in a history sub, go figure.

The ship was the SS Drotnighelm iirc, or something like that, and the refugees on it were not the last to be refused entry into the US. The times were very highly charged, and everyone was paranoid, and I guess the decisions seemed sensible at the time, but now looking back with the advantage of the passage of time, we might think that better options should have been found, like the Brits did with the camps.

Did you check the Alexandria Wiki?

Actually, Scotland had minor trade links with Islamic Iberia at the beginning of the 8th century, and had contact with the Muslim world from some time in the 7th, you are a few centuries out.

Surely no great mystery, Islam had spread to Iberia by about the 8th century, and Scotland had some minor trade links there. That Islamic items ended up in Scotland should be of no surprise to anyone who knows the history.

I remember watching this on the news as a kid

If it wasn’t for the article stating the origin of these people, they could have been someone from almost anywhere in Britain. It’s incredibly interesting to see the faces of people who lived so long ago, and try to imagine what they had seen and experienced.