A hajduk (Hungarian: hajdúk, plural of hajdú 'foot-soldier') is a type of irregular infantry found in Central, Eastern, and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries, especially from Hajdú-Bihar county.^[1] They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time, place, and their enemies.

In the European lands of the Ottoman Empire, the term hajduk was used to describe bandits and brigands of the Balkans, while in Central Europe for the West Slavs, Hungarians, and Germans, and Eastern Europe for the Ukrainians, it was used to refer to outlaws who protected Christians against provocative actions by the Ottomans.^[2]

By the 17th century they were firmly established in the Ottoman Balkans, owing to increased taxes, Christian victories against the Ottomans, and a general decline in security. Hajduk bands predominantly numbered one hundred men each, with a firm hierarchy under one leader. They targeted Ottoman representatives and rich people, mainly rich Turks, for plunder or punishment to oppressive Ottomans, or revenge or a combination of all.^[2]

In Balkan folkloric tradition, the hajduk is a romanticised hero figure who steals from, and leads his fighters into battle against, the Ottoman authorities.^[3] They are comparable to the English legendary Robin Hood and his merry men, who stole from the rich (who as in the case of the hajduk happened to also be foreign occupiers) and gave to the poor, while defying seemingly unjust laws and authority.^{[citation needed]}

People that helped hajduks were called jataks. Jataks lived in villages and towns and provided food and shelter for hajduks. In return, hajduks would give them part of the loot.

The hajduk of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries commonly were as much guerrilla 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.^[4][5]

The etymology of the word hajduk is unclear. One theory is that hajduk was derived from the Turkish word haidut or haydut 'bandit', which was originally used by the Ottomans to refer to Hungarian and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth infantry soldiers. Another theory suggests that the word comes from Hungarian hajtó or hajdó (plural hajtók or hajdók) '(cattle) drover'.^[6] These two theories do not necessarily contradict each other because the Turkish word haidut or haydut is adapted from the Hungarian hajtó or hajdó just as many slavic words were adapted from Turkish in what is known as Turcizam or Turkification.^[4][5][7]

Other spellings in English include ajduk, haydut, haiduk, haiduc, hayduck, and hayduk.

In 1604-1606, István Bocskay, Lord of Bihar, led an insurrection against the Habsburg Emperor, whose army had recently occupied Transylvania and begun a reign of terror. The bulk of Bocskay's army was composed of serfs who had either fled from the war and the Habsburg drive toward Catholic conversion, or been discharged from the Imperial Army. These peasants, freelance soldiers, were known as the hajduks.^[8] As a reward for their service, Bocskay emancipated the hajduk from the jurisdiction of their lords, granted them land, and guaranteed them rights to own property and to personal freedom.^[9] The emancipated hajduk constituted a new "warrior estate" within Hungarian feudal society.^[10] Many of the settlements created at this time still bear the prefix Hajdú such as Hajdúbagos, Hajdúböszörmény, Hajdúdorog, Hajdúhadház, Hajdúnánás, Hajdúsámson, Hajdúszoboszló, Hajdúszovát, Hajdúvid etc., and the whole area is called Hajdúság (Land of the Hajduk) (see Hajdú County).

The Hajdú have always been an important pillar of Hungarian society and its defence. During the great Turkish attack of 1551/52, it was possible to recruit several hundred or even several thousand Hajdú troops from the Nyírség-Debrecen region for an action against the Turks. Among the Hungarians, the Hajdú lifestyle was significant. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, we know of tens of thousands of hajdú, who were also the first to fight in wars in the first half of the 17th century. Their activities were significant both as mercenaries and as Defence Forces. Hajdú life provided social mobility, as their success was illustrated by the fact that, although they were born as peasant or petty nobles, they often received substantial land donations from the ruler and became quasi-nobility. ^[11]

The word hajduk was initially a colloquial term for a style of footsoldier, Hungarian or Turco-Balkan in inspiration, that formed the backbone of the Polish infantry arm from the 1570s until about the 1630s.^[12] Unusually for this period, Polish-Lithuanian hajduks wore uniforms, typically of grey-blue woolen cloth, with red collar and cuffs. Their principal weapon was a small calibre matchlock firearm, known as an arquebus. For close combat they also carried a heavy variety of sabre, capable of hacking off the heads of enemy pikes and polearms. Contrary to popular opinion, the small axe they often wore tucked in their belt (not to be confused with the huge half-moon shaped berdysz axe, which was seldom carried by hajduks) was not a combat weapon, but rather was intended for cutting wood.

In the mid-17th century hajduk-style infantry largely fell out of fashion in Poland-Lithuania, and were replaced by musket-armed infantry of Western style. However, commanders or hetmans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth continued to maintain their own liveried bodyguards of hajduks, well into the 18th century as something of a throwback to the past, even though they were now rarely used as field troops. In imitation of these bodyguards, in the 18th century wealthy members of the szlachta hired liveried domestic servants whom they called hajduks, thereby creating the meaning of the term 'hajduk' as it is generally understood in modern Polish.^[13]

The Serbs established a Hajduk army that supported the Austrians.^[14] The army was divided into 18 companies, in four groups.^[15] In this period, the most notable obor-kapetans were Vuk Isaković from Crna Bara, Mlatišuma from Kragujevac and Kosta Dimitrijević from Paraćin.^[14]

The Croatian football team HNK Hajduk Split; Serbian football teams Hajduk Kula, FK Hajduk Beograd, FK Hajduk Veljko and Hajduk Lion; the Macedonian football team FK Hajduk - Vratnica; Czech amateur football team Hajduk Lipník; the pop-music project Haiducii, and Romanian 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, US national soccer team defender Frankie Hejduk, Czech Republic national ice hockey team forward Milan Hejduk and Montenegrin theoretical physicist Dragan Hajduković, 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 2003 viral Moldovan pop song Dragostea Din Tei, the singer begins by introducing himself as a 'haiduc'. In 2004, Haiducii herself released a successful cover of the song.^[16][17]

• Arabo (1863–1893)
• Aghbiur Serob (1864–1899)
• Andranik (1865–1927)
• Kevork Chavush (1870–1907)

• Çerçiz Topulli (1880–1915), important figure during the Albanian National Awakening and Albanian national hero

• Karposh

• Iancu Jianu (1787–1842), hajduk in Oltenia, participant of the Wallachian Uprising
• Popa Șapcă [ro] (fl. 1848–64), priest and hajduk in Oltenia, participant in the 1848 Revolutions in Wallachia
• Pintea the Brave (d. 1703), rebel in the area of Maramureș.
• Anghel Panait [ro]
• Andrei Popa [ro] (1790–1818)

• Odysseas Androutsos (1788–1825)
• Markos Botsaris (1788–1823)
• Athanasios Diakos (1788–1821)
• Geórgios Karaïskákis (1782–1827)
• Antonis Katsantonis (c. 1775 – 1808)
• Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770–1843)
• Dimitrios Makris (c. 1772 – 1841)
• Nikitas Stamatelopoulos (c. 1784 – 1849)

• Angyal Bandi
• Juraj Jánošík (1688–1713)
• Sándor Rózsa (1813–1878)
• Jóska Sobri (1810–1837)

• Ivan Gonta (1721–1768)
• Ustym Karmaliuk (1787–1835)
• Maksym Zalizniak (1740–1768)
• Oleksa Dovbush (1700-1745)

• Juraj Jánošík (1688–1713)
• Matěj Ondra z Leskovce
• Ondráš

• Ivo Senjanin (d. 1612), Habsburg uskok
• Mijat Tomić (1610–1656), brigand leader in Ottoman Bosnia
• Petar Mrkonjić (fl. 1645–69), Venetian-employed guerrilla
• Ilija Perajica (fl. 1685), Venetian-employed guerrilla leader
• Ivan Bušić Roša (1745–1783), Venetian-employed guerrilla leader
• Andrijica Šimić (1833–1905), outlaw in Herzegovina

• Betyár
• Hajdú-Bihar County
• Armatoles
• Armenian fedayi, occasionally referred to as hajduks
• Early Cossacks, Slavic-Tatar frontier warriors
• Kângë Kreshnikësh, an Albanian oral tradition of frontier warrior mythology
• Banditry
• Irregular military
• Hajdučka Republika Mijata Tomića, a micronation
• Hayduke, term used by environmental activists

• Bracewell, Wendy (2003). "The Proud Name of Hajduks". In Naimark, Norman M.; Case, Holly (eds.). Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. pp. 22–36. ISBN 978-0-8047-8029-2.
• Suvajdžić, Boško (2003). "Hajduci i uskoci u narodnoj poeziji: Istorijske pretpostavke za nastanak i razvoj hajdučkog pokreta" (in Serbian). Janus; Rastko. Archived from the original on 2016-03-22.

• Metaweb entry on "Haiduks"