The Magyars (or Hungarians) invaded the Carpathian Basin in 895 or 896. They settled in the lowlands along the Middle Danube and consolidated their authority in the region during the subsequent decades. Contemporaneous Byzantine authors referred to them as "Tourkoi (Turks)" and to their land as "Tourkia (Turkey)" in the 10th century. The Hungarians were pagans, described as star- and fire-worshipers by Muslim geographers. In search for booty, they made regular raids, primarily against Western Europe in the early 10th century. They also invaded the Balkan territories of the Byzantine Empire in 934 and 943, forcing the Byzantines to sign a peace treaty. One of the Hungarians' principal military commanders, the "Karhas" Bulcsú, was baptised in Constantinople in 948. Bulcsú's conversion was not sincere and he launched new plundering raids against the Byzantine Empire in the early 950s.