Why were First Crusade participants called Franks by Muslims?

During the First Crusade, Muslim populations referred to the European invaders as "Franks" because the Franks were a powerful Germanic people who had established the most significant Christian kingdom in early medieval Western Europe, eventually giving their name to the region of France (Francia).1

Historically, the term "Frank" originated from a West Germanic tribal confederacy that occupied Gaul and the Netherlands. Over time, the name lost its specific ethnic connotation and became a general identifier for inhabitants of the Frankish kingdom. By the time of the Crusades, the term was used by Muslims in the East as a broad, collective label for the Western European Christians who arrived to conquer and settle in the Holy Land, regardless of their specific national or regional origins.234