Mesopotamia,
land that extends between Tigris and Euphrates rivers, has been birth-place
of civilization.
There the man began to carry on farming and learned to tame animals like the dog,
cattle (abt 8.000 BCE) and sheep (abt 6.000 BCE), there the first cities rose and so technique and art were developed.
THE SUMERIANS Their
civilization was developed in a period extending approximately from 3.500
BCE to 2.000 BCE in the South of the Mesopotamia where they built the cities of
Ur, Eridu, Lagash, Uruk, Kish, and Nippur.
The inhabitants carried on the farming and breeding of
the sheep, but also commerce and numerous handicraft activities like tanning and the manufacture of footwear.
The most used tannery techniques were fat
tanning with vegetable oils and mineral tanning with alum, but vegetable tanning with tannin extracted from gall pods
was also used and skins
were dyed with black, white and red colors.
On account of the climate
of the region, the Sumerians usually walked barefoot and, only at the apex of
their civilization statues and bas-reliefs show us figures wearing sandals, starting from 2.600
BCE.
THE HITTITES (
abt 2.000 BCE - abt 1.100 BCE) They were an
Indo-European people living in the mountains of Anatolia where they carried on sheep-rearing.
They tanned skins with tannin extracted from gall
pods, which their territory was rich and, since they lived in an uneven country
they had to wear hardy shoes which were a characteristic model.
In fact, reliefs of divinity found at Gavorkkale (Turkey), show them wearing up-turned shoes and the
ancient Egyptians like also the Mesopotamian peoples when they wanted to portray the Hittites in
sculptures or paintings, represented them wearing this model of footwear; many historians wondered the reason of this shape
and some have expressed a theory that they derived from a snow-shoes model with up-turned toe for a better walk, others have
thought of a phallic motivation, but it is just a matter of
suppositions.
In a low relief ( 865 - 860 BCE) exhibited at the
British Museum of London and found in the north-west palace of Nimrud in which a procession of bearers of tributes is carved, we can see one of these
wearing a kind of ankle-boot with up-tur- ned tips (see picture n.° 11); it
can be presumed that this man belonged to neo-Hittite civilization, succeeded to
real Hittite empire and made up of a group of city states situated in the Taurus massif zone and
in the north of Syria.
Those peoples lost independence just owing to Assyrian
expansion.
THE ASSYRIANS (abt
2.000 BCE - 612 BCE) They learned from the Sumerians and Babylonians many technical knowledge about tanning of skins and treatment of leather and
improved them making good use of these materials.
In a bas-relief displayed at the British Museum of
London, representing a return from hunting, some people wear knee- boots suitable
to riding and to be used in war-chariots (see picture n.° 12).
In the Shamsi-Adad pillar exhibited in the same museum
and coming from temple of Nabo at Nimrud, the king wears "infra-finger"
sandals (see picture n.°13).
THE BABYLONIANS (abt
2.000 BCE - 612 BCE) They learned from the Sumerians culture and
technical knowledge.
Like them, they used, above all, sandals, but, in some cuneiform tablets,
also embroidered and decorated with
metallic trimmings shoes are quoted.
THE PERSIANS (ACHAEMENID
DYNASTY) (abt 700
BCE - 331 BCE). Towards 700 BCE Achaemenes founded a small reign in the
territory of the present-day Iran which extends at the foot of Bachtyari
mounts; his heirs, Cyrus I and Cambyses I, enlarged it until the son of
Cambyses, Cyrus the Great, unified all Persian tribes and with these forces began a series of conquests incorporating in
his empire Media, Babylon, Syria and Phoenicia; his son Cambyses II, submitted Egypt (525
BCE); his successor Darius I conquered the west of India and the Greek cities on
the coasts of Asia Minor and also tried to take possession of Greece
beginning the cycle of the Persian wars which went on for 150 years.
With his successors the decline
of the dynasty began which concluded with the defeat of the last of the
Achaemenides by Alexander the Great in the battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE).
In the royal palace of Susa a ceramic bas-relief exists
in which some soldiers wearing a footwear like that one of the picture n.°
14 are portrayed.
THE JEWS (
abt 2.000 BCE - 44 CE) Their people consisted of 12 tribes which, towards 2.000
BCE, began the conquest of the territories of the present-day Palestine where
they built
some populous cities even if continued to carry on sheep-rearing and therefore a half-nomadic way of life.
They knew the same systems of tannery techniques of their
neighbors and, like them, wore, above all, sandals.
Feminine footwear could be adorned with metallic
appliqué works and /or shells and they used to cut the name of the lo- ved
person on the sole, so that, at every step, it remained impressed on the
soft ground.
A point of curiosity: when an ancient Jew wanted to
seal a transaction, he unlaced a sandal.
THE PHOENICIANS (
abt 2.000 BCE - 64 BCE) They were a people probably originating from the Persian
Gulf from which they emigrated towards Eastern Mediterranean coasts.
Here they built many cities like Tyre and Sidon
which, later on, set up colonies on the commercial courses of that sea, the
most famous was Carthage.
We do not know their
systems of tannery, but we know that they discovered purple dyeing
method also usable on leather and skins and that they usually wore sandals.
THE SCITIANS (
abt 1.500 BCE - 100 CE) They were a nomadic people of Iranian extraction
that, after many wanderings in Asian steppes, settled down on the coasts of Black Sea where they
carried on breeding of horses.
They tanned skins with smoking, a technique
common to the people of Far East and north of America, where Asian tribes emigrated through the strait of Bering beginning the peopling of
that continent.
Some frozen finds of skin and leather have been
recovered in burials of Altai, near Pazyryk (Kazakistan) such as soft skin boots
for riding especially red dyed and combined with felt leggings.
THE TURKS (
abt 1.220 - abt 1.600) The Turks reached Asia Minor in first half of XIII century
and settled down in the surroundings of Ankara.
After their conversion to Islam, they began to expand
towards Bosphorus under the leadership of sultan Osman Gazi (1.281 - 1.326).
The sultan Orkan Gazi
(1.326 - 1.359) disembarked in Europe at Gallipolis and, from there,
outflanking Constantinople conquered Macedonia and Thrace.
His son, Murad the Great
(1.359 - 1.389) fixed his capital in Adrianople, defeated the Serbs repeatedly,
occupied Bulgaria and reduced to vassalage the Byzantine Empire.
The Turkish conquests had come to a standstill under
Bajazid ( 1.389 - 1.403) who, even if he besieged several times Constantinople, did not conquer it distracted
by the advance of Tamerlane's Mongols who defeated and captured him in the battle of Ankara.
At his death, for about 20 years, his sons competed for inheritance which handed to Mahomet I (1.413 - 1.421)
conqueror of
the coasts of Black Sea and to Murad II ( 1.421 - 1.451) who extended Ottoman provinces
also to Thessaly Epirus and Valachia, threatening Hungary.
Under Mahomet II (1.451 - 1.481) the period of
maximum political and cultural expansion began; he conquered Constantinople in 1.453 and made of it
his capital city with the name of Istanbul.
In this city tanneries were concentrated in the
suburb of Yedi Kule, not only because in this area was situated the greater part of slaughter-houses of the city, but also because of the stench which
derived from tanning manufactures.
Various types of leather and skins existed:
buffalo-hide with hairs ( in Turkish language: Prebat) coming from Tartaria
buffalo-hides coming from Nicopolis and Constantinople too, leathers coming from
Moldavia, mule-hides and shagreens.
Shoemakers were organized in a corporation which
was highly checked up by state in order to guarantee maximum quality to customer.
The inhabitants of Istanbul, in the days of sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent (1.520 - 1.566) and longer, normally wore a kind
of slippers (in Turkish language: Papuç) which had the advantage, being opened
in heel, that they could be worn without stooping and having to touch one's feet;
they had an up-turned toe and heel was reinforced with a little u-shaped
iron plate which prevented wear and tear; they were sewn very carefully and were
very strong, specially those made with leather coming from east of empire, the best and the lightest.
Babouches reserved to Muslims were dyed in yellow
and was not allowed to infidels, unless on duty with some ambassadors, to wear ones of the same color, while Christians, Jews or others could
wear them in red, violet or black
They also used soled stockings (in Turkish language:
Este),
ankle boots (in Turkish language: Pasmak), boots (in Turkish language: Çizme), leather or
morocco leather climbing-boots (in Turkish language: Mest and Terlik).
Women of good social rank used, at home, babouches
or slippers both made of embroidered leather or high clogs with an onomatopoeic name Kipkap and, outside, a sort of ankle boots.
11 
12 
13
14
in order to know something else about ancient peoples of Near East....
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