Saracens
Saracens, the name by which Muslims were generally known to Christians during the time of the Crusades. (The Muslims who invaded Spain from Morocco, however, were known as Moors.) Based on a word meaning “easterners,” the term Saracens had long been used in the Byzantine Empire for the Arabian nomads of the Syrian desert. After the founding of Islam,the name was extended to the Muslim forces that attacked Byzantine territory.