The Franks (Arabic Franj or Ifranj ) were originally a Germanic people who migrated from the East into the Western Roman Empire, beginning at the end of the third century CE, and gradually became the dominant political force in Western Europe. The term probably came into Arabic through the Byzantine Greek term Frangoi , which itself came from the Franks; it was used by mediaeval Muslims as a generic term for all the Latin Christians of Europe, despite their knowledge of more specific ethnic terms, such as English, French, German, and Slav.