Word origin | Haydut, Hayta, Eşkiya

Hajduk, 1703

Mavi Boncuk |

Irredentism

Haydut: bandit, brigand, robber.

haydut [xvii Men, Peç] Macar piyade askeri
[xviii] eşkiya, başıbozuk from Hungarian hajdúk[1] [pl.] hajdú başıbozuk piyade, akıncı

Serbian/Albanian hajduk, Romanian haiduc, Bulgarian haidut (eşkiya, başıbozuk

little devil, little dickens.

Hayta: hooligan, hobo, bum

(a) goof-off; (a) ne'er-do-well, (a) good-for-nothing, (a) no-count.

» (someone) who is a goof-off; ne'er-do-well, good-for-nothing, no-count.

Eşkiya:

(pl.) Şakiler. Yol kesenler. Asiler. Allah'a veya kanunlara isyan edip kötülük yapanlar. Haydutlar, anarşistler, âsiler. Hak ve kanunlara baş kaldıranlar, Allahın emirlerine karşı gelenler.

The brigand is supposed to derive his name from the Old French brigan, which is a form of the Italian brigante, an irregular or partisan soldier. There can be no doubt as to the origin of the word bandit, which has the same meaning. In Italy, which is not unjustly considered the home of the most accomplished European brigands, a bandito was a man declared outlaw by proclamation, or bando[dubious – discuss], called in Scotland "a decree of horning" because it was delivered by a blast of a horn at the town cross. The brigand, therefore, is the outlaw who conducts warfare after the manner of an irregular or partisan soldier by skirmishes and surprises, who makes the war support itself by plunder, by extorting blackmail, by capturing prisoners and holding them to ransom, who enforces his demands by violence, and kills the prisoners who cannot pay.

Brigandage as resistance

In certain conditions the brigand has not been a mere malefactor. "It is you who are the thieves", was the defence of the Calabrian who was tried as a brigand by a French court-martial during the reign of Joachim Murat in Naples.

Brigandage may be, and not infrequently has been, the last resource of a people subject to invasion. The Calabrians who fought for Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, and the Spanish irregular levies, which maintained the national resistance against the French from 1808 to 1814, were called brigands by their enemies.

In the Balkan peninsula, under Turkish rule, the brigands (called klephts by the Greeks and hayduks or haydutzi by the Slavs) had some claim to believe themselves the representatives of their people against oppressors. The only approach to an attempt to maintain order was the permission given to part of the population to carry arms in order to repress the klephts. They were hence called armatoli. As a matter of fact the armatole were rather the allies than the enemies of the klephts.

[1] Hajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, brigands, highwaymen or freedom fighters in Southeastern Europe, and parts of Central and Eastern Europe. In Balkan folkloric tradition, the hajduk (hajduci or haiduci in the plural) is a romanticised hero figure who steals from, and leads his fighters into battle against, the Ottoman or Habsburg authorities. They are comparable to the English legend of Robin Hood and his merry men, who stole from the rich (which as in the case of the hajduci happened to be also foreign occupants) and gave to the poor, while defying unjust laws and authority.

• Armenian fedayi, guerillas and irregulars (1880s–1920s)
• Bushrangers, bandits in Australia (1850s–1900s)
• Kachaks, Albanian bandits and rebels (1880s–1930)
• Klepht, Ottoman Greek bandits and rebels
• Haidamaka, pro-Cossack paramility (18th century)
• Rapparee, Irish guerillas (1690s)
• Uskoks, Habsburg irregulars (1520s–1618)
• Zeybeks, Ottoman irregulars (17th to 20th c.)