The Serbian hajduks (Serbian: хајдуци / hajduci) were brigands (bandits) and guerrilla freedom fighters (rebels) throughout Ottoman-held Balkans, mainly in Serbia, organized into bands headed by a harambaša ("bandit leader"), who descended from the mountains and forests and robbed and attacked the Ottomans.
[6] In this period, the most notable obor-kapetans were Vuk Isaković from Crna Bara, Mlatišuma from Kragujevac and Kosta Dimitrijević from Paraćin.
[7] Apart from the obor-kapetans, other notable commanders were kapetans Keza Radivojević from Grocka and Sima Vitković from Valjevo.
[9] During the Great Eastern Crisis, set off by a Serb uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1875 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Herzegovina Uprising), Prince Peter adopted the nom de guerre of hajduk Petar Mrkonjić of Ragusa, and joined the Bosnian Serb insurgents as a leader of a guerilla unit.
[10] Among Serbian revolutionaries that had been active hajduks prior to the Revolution, were Stanoje Glavaš, Hajduk-Veljko, Stojan Čupić, Lazar Dobrić, and others.
In Serbian epic poetry, the hajduks are cherished as heroes, freedom fighters against the Ottoman rule.