Thieves and Bandits -A Study in Social Formation

Abstract

One of the common story patterns in literature is the story of thieves or tales of thieves. These thieves are tramps, thugs.They are the poor, the hungry, and the unemployed, who have been crushed by poverty and unemployment due to the mismanagement of leaders and rulers and their inattention to the interests of the people.

Two things brought them together historically, socially and artistically: The first: Affiliation to a specific social circle, class and social ostracized from higher social groups, they are in this respect groups living on the margins of society. And the second: They are all in a state of conflict with this society that rejected them, so they rejected their bitter reality and rebelled against their society. They tried to revolt against it, even though the two sides of the conflict were unequal, but by doing so, they declared their rebellion against some layers of this society and revolted against those in charge of it, in order to obtain illegally what they perceive as their legitimate right.         

          These sects of thieves and rebels aim to condemn a certain era and revolt against certain classes, which are destined to monopolize power or money or both.

          Naturally, this rebellion has its social and cultural connotations, just as it had its political, economic and social justifications and motives, especially in times of political rupture or historical transformation.

  Through this study, we hope to revisit the history of the public's inheritance, uprisings, and popular movements, especially those led by the chattar, al-Ayyarun, and those who are similar to them who have been living on the margins of society, at the foot of the social entity, who are outlaws of the positive law in the knowledge of the authority and the upper classes, as they are not thieves in the traditional evil sense. These are the first to be fought by popular miserliness, but they are rebels with a cause, whose legitimate means were blocked, so they found only banditry as a way of expressing themselves and announcing their cause.