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Konformität und Randständigkeit: Bettler im vormodernen Nahen Osten (Conformity and Marginality: Beggars in the Pre-Modern Middle East)

Beggars were a common feature of pre-modern Middle Eastern societies. This article discusses whether beggars constituted (a) marginal group(s), focusing on the period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The examination of three sub-groups, vagrant beggars, mendicants of mystical brotherhoods and urban settled beggars, shows that the literary elites perceived beggary in highly differing terms on the moral spectrum. The article’s second question concerns the nature of their relationships with power-holding elites. During the period under consideration, systematic repressive measures against beggars were infrequent and beggars rarely tended to form institutionalised fraternities in order to interact with the political elites.