Syria and Egypt call al-minsar (the raiding band) (1), while in Baghdad they were called al-ayyārūn (the roving brigands) (2).
Even if they fight with clubs, stones thrown by hand, slings, or similar weapons, they are still legally classed as brigands. It has been reported from some jurists that brigandage can be committed only with a sharp weapon, while others have reported a consensus that it can be committed with either a sharp weapon or a blunt instrument. Whether or not there is disagreement on this issue, the correct view held by the great majority of Muslims is that anyone who fights in order to seize property, by whatever form of fighting, is a brigand and waylayer—just as any disbeliever who fights the Muslims, by whatever form of fighting (3), is an enemy combatant; and any Muslim who fights the disbelievers with a sword, spear, arrow, stone, or club is fighting in the cause of Allah Most High.
As for one who secretly kills people in order to take their property—such as one who stays at an inn
(1) *Al-minsar*: a detachment of an army whose size authorities define differently; it ordinarily advances ahead of the main army. The term later came to be applied to the *ayyārūn*. See *Lisān al-Arab* (1/691, 5/204). For some accounts of them, see al-Maqrīzī’s *al-Sulūk li-Duwal al-Mulūk*.
(2) *Al-ayyārūn* is the plural of *ayyār*, meaning one who moves about and roams extensively. The Arabs used the term both in praise and disparagement. Later, however, it came to designate bands of thieves who took advantage of the state’s preoccupation to attack shops and homes, seize property, kill people, and commit other forms of lawlessness. They sometimes grew powerful enough to control many places and became especially notorious during the Abbasid era. Numerous accounts of them appear in *Tārīkh al-Tabarī*, Ibn al-Athīr’s *al-Kāmil*, and *al-Bidāya wa-al-Nihāya*. See *Alfāz al-Hadāra fī al-Qarn al-Rābi al-Hijrī* (p. 79) and *Mu‘jam al-Mustalahāt al-Tārīkhiyya* (p. 328).
(3) The passage from “for he is a combatant …” to this point is omitted from manuscript (L), while the phrase “among the forms of fighting” does not appear in manuscript (Z).