The social history of shoes and shoe-making in the traditional Islamicate world

Wearing footwear to protect the feet from injuries and facilitate moving around has been a common practice for a long time in Persia, Mesopotamia, and the surrounding civilizations, not least in the urban centers. The profession of shoe-making is, therefore, deemed an important and profitable one. The study presents various types of footwear and how the domain worked in the structure of the traditional Islamicate world by examining a wide range of historical, literary, and social sources. To this end, Clifford Geertz’s approach, Thick Description, is used. The modus operandi of the profession is explored via unraveling the material elements in shoes and shoe-making. The elements include a diversity of the jargon used in the profession, the tools, the workplace, professional ethics, the monitoring of the craftsmen and their major and minor incomes, and the vocational and social position they enjoyed. Contrary to the current belief, this craft was not lucrative despite the diversity and high demand for the products. Accordingly, the craftsmen mostly belonged to the lower strata of Muslim societies.