Byzantine Greeks, forming the majority of the Byzantine Empire proper at the height of its power, gradually came under the dominance of foreign powers with the decline of the Empire during the Middle Ages. Those who came under Arab Muslim rule, either fled their former lands or submitted to the new Muslim rulers, receiving the status of "Dhimmi". Over the centuries these surviving Christian societies of former Byzantine Greeks in Arab realms evolved into Antiochian Greeks (Melkites) or merged into the societies of Arab Christians, existing to this day.