Vagabond sects in the Arabian Peninsula before Islam.

Abstract

It seems that the outlaws (ṣaʿālik) were not a single group, but were composed of several factions due to geographic, economic, social, and political conditions that influenced the emergence and continuation of the outlaw groups. The diversity of these conditions led to the diversity of the factions.

Before Islam, the outlaws in the Arabian Peninsula were made up of three factions: the first was the group of strangers, children of black Ethiopian slave women who were abandoned by their fathers due to the shame of their birth, so they were associated with their mothers' status, and were referred to as "the strangers of the Arabs." The second was the group of the "exiled" (the disbanded), individuals expelled by their tribes due to their numerous crimes. The third group was not made up of the exiled, but rather of poor individuals who took up the life of an outlaw as a profession.

It is worth noting that these factions changed across different eras. In the prophetic era, most of these factions disappeared due to the disappearance of the reasons for their existence. By the Umayyad period (41 AH - 132 AH), four factions of outlaws emerged: the exiled, the poor, those fleeing justice, and the political outlaws. The group of black strangers nearly disappeared, while in the Abbasid period (132 AH - 656 AH), new factions emerged, such as the poetic poor, the thieving poor, the "ʿayyārīn" (bandits), and the parasitic youths. The factions of the exiled and the black strangers disappeared due to the fragmentation of Arab tribes, the mixing with non-Arabs, and the abandonment of many inherited traditions.

It seems that the three factions that made up the outlaw gangs all shared a common cause: the oppression they experienced from society, which led to the severance of their connection with their communities. This disconnection caused the breakdown of the social contract that normally links individuals to their communities, which should make the individual a contributing member, living in harmony with society.

What united these factions, despite their differences, was their rebellion against the socio-economic system that existed at the time. They sought to reject and revolt against it due to the injustice, oppression, and abuse within it. As a result, their tribes disowned them, declaring them as outsiders violating social laws and customs, leading to the conflict between the two sides, which resulted in the formation of these three factions: the poor, the exiled, and the strangers.

Alongside these factions, there were men of noble lineage who became outlaws for a time, only to later become leaders of their tribes. For example, al-Hamadhani (d. 334 AH/945 CE) mentions that Abdullah ibn Jadʿan, who started out poor and destitute, was "an outlaw from the outlaws of Quraysh," and was known for his crimes, which made his people, kin, and tribe despise him. Additionally, entire tribes had turned to the life of outlaws.