During the early age of the Caliphates, Ajam was often meant the same thing as barbarian. In some cases it was a word that was used as a way of making people seem like they were not as good as them. In the Middle East, it was usually used to the Persians. In Turkish, the usage of the term is not used to any group of people from a country, but instead seems to have changed from the original Arabic usage for outsiders and turned into a different meaning as the term "ajemi" (in modern Turkish "acemi") which means "clumsy", "inept" or "novice".