Hajduk

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Hajduk (or haiduk, haiduc, hayduck, hayduk) is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, highwaymen or freedom fighters in the Balkans.

Forms of the word in various languages include:

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 oppressors. They are comparable to the English legend of Robin Hood and his merry men, who stole from the rich (which in the case of the hajduci happened to be also foreign occupants) and gave to the poor, while participating in a small guerilla war against an injust authority.

In reality, the hajduci of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were as much guerilla fighters against the Ottoman rule as they were bandits and highwaymen who preyed not only on Ottomans and their local representatives, but also on local merchants and travellers. As such, the term could also refer to any robber and carry a negative connotation.[1][2] However, most of the hajduci did follow a moral code which forbade robbing the poor, and motiveless murder.

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The etymology of the word "hajduk" is unclear. One theory is that hajduk was derived from the Turkish word haidud or haydut, which was originally used by the Ottomans to refer to Hungarian infantry soldiers. Another theory suggests that the word comes from the Hungarian hajtó (plural hajtók), meaning a (cattle) drover.[3] Indeed, these two theories do not necessarily contradict each other, as the Balkan word is said to be derived from the Turkish word haidud or haydut (bandit),[1][2][4] while the Turkish is in turn believed to have been borrowed from Hungarian and to have originally referred to Hungarian mercenaries who guarded the Hungarian-Turkish border.[5] Families of Croatian descent with the same oral traditions of "mountain banditry" use the surname Hidek, a derived form of "hajduk".

The Croatian football team Hajduk Split; Serbian football teams Hajduk Kula and Hajduk Lion; the Romanian band Taraful Haiducilor, pop-music project Haiducii, and Roma musical troupe Taraful Haiducilor are all named after the hajduci. The surnames of the fictional character George Washington Hayduke, invented by Edward Abbey, actress Stacy Haiduk,and Milan Hejduk, an NHL hockey player are likewise derived from this word.

The term "haiduci" was used by the Romanian resistance movement Haiducii Muscelului, between 1947 and 1959, which opposed the Soviet occupation and the Communist government.

In the early 1970s, after the publication of the now classic sociological studies Primitive Rebels and Bandits by historian Eric Hobsbawm, hajduks started appearing in western social and anthropological literature. Hobsbawm invented the term "social bandit" to describe outlaws who operate on the edges of rural societies by fighting against authorities and sometimes helping the ordinary people. There has always been a degree of fluidity in their status, whereby, as described by John Kolipoulos in his study of Greek klephts, Brigands with a Cause, brigands would sometimes change sides and start acting on behalf of the authorities to preserve peace and suppress banditry, and vice-versa.

From the early 1980s, sociological studies started narrating the stories of hajduks, kelphts, bandits, brigands, outlaws, rebels, and pirates in all parts of the planet, from Australia to republican China, the Balkans, the American Wild West, Cuba and Mexico.

  1. ^ a b Найден Геров. 1895-1904. Речник на блъгарский язик.Хайдукъ
  2. ^ a b Л.Андрейчин и др. 2006. Български тълковен речник. Четвърто издание
  3. ^ Petrović, Aleksandar. The Role of Banditry in the Creation of National States in the Central Balkans During the 19th Century
  4. ^ Младенов, Стефан. 1941. Етимологически и правописен речник на българския книжовен език
  5. ^ Max Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary of Russian (Russian)

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