The New Student's Reference Work/Saracens

Saracens (săr′ȧ-sĕnz), the name formerly given by western writers to the Mohammedans of Syria and Palestine, the Arabs generally or the Arab-Berber races of North Africa, who conquered Spain and Sicily and invaded France. Later it was used to mean all nations against which crusades were preached, and was thus applied to the Seljuks of Iconium, the Turks, the Gypsies and even the pagan Prussians. Whether the word comes from an Arab word meaning to steal, from another meaning desert, from a Hebrew word meaning poor or from an Arab word meaning eastern people has been disputed, but the last guess is the most likely. See Arabia, Crusades, Moors.