The Armour Archive

I'm currently in the process of putting together a whole new kit......second half of the 15th cent. Ottoman. Many here have been such a great help thus far, but the one thing I am really having a hard time finding is period footwear. I don't want my new kit, hard and soft, to be ruined by not having a decent set of shoes for fighting and/or dress.


Anyone have any ideas?

Typical for this period is a soft low shoe - very similar to the modern Moroccan babouche or ship-ship. Pointed and round toes show up in the miniatures - but I have yet to see any depictions of the curly-toed clown shoes that the renfaire merchant types want to pimp to the ignorant...

http://www.babouche-maroc.com/atlas-slippers-p-67.html shows a pretty typical babouche - note that these can be worn with the heel up (as a shoe) and down (like a slip-on) - and this can also be seen in the Osmanli miniatures as well.

These are often worn with a soft leather sock, called a khuff in Arabic - I've seen these for sale in a lot of online Islamic clothing shops, and they are usually pretty well made - although they take some getting used to.

Sewn socks are known, as are knitted, felted ones (depending on region) as are a variety of footwraps.

I think that their Alibaba's would work pretty well. I have The Jeweler's Eye at home and when I was looking at it a couple weeks ago, they had slippers pretty close to that in them, although an enclose heel might work a little better. I'll check again after work.

Boots of that shape would be great.

The babouche from the babouche-maroc.com are pretty well made, but being a tall guy with huge flipper (size 13), I am out of their listed size range. I should email them and see about other sizes.

I got lucky a few tears back - Mistress Cristobal (who also found the source for the Mongol boots) found a vendor on eBay who was liquidating a butt-ton of babouche - they had planned to open a Moroccan restaurant and gift shop in London, and had their backers pull out - AFTER they had ordered merchandise for the shop. She bought the entire stock (all have been sold off, dammit), and among them was a pair of 'em big enough for my skis.

I need to rebuild them - the soles wore out, but the uppers are fine. I will take a pattern when I do.

I have a rather large foot as well. On most brands of shoes I run a 13 to 13 1/2 wide.

When you do rebuild the ones you have it would be excellent if you could take a pattern. I'm sure we could work out some form of compensation for your troubles.


Thanks


P.S. I recall seeing some pics from a russian site showing a cavalryman wearing taller boots. I was thinking maybe a set of tall boot would be alright for combat. The babouche don't appear they would be all that effective in a combat scenario.

Benedek bey, no recompense is necessary - I love to share with folks that are interested in doing it right - folks that want to do a cartoon stereotype? Not so interested in helping them...

The babouche, if they are well fitting, are like fighting in turnshoes. I wouldn't like them for war situations where any amount of running is involved.

Maeryk wrote:

Bwaha haha ha!