Unusual Historic Events That Will Make You Cringe For Days

The Cultural Significance of Footwear

Sultana Shajar al Durr ruled Egypt starting in 1250. Her reign was cut short in 1257, when her maids beat her to death with slippers as she bathed. Al Durr’s enemies were not only pleased at her demise, but took extra satisfaction from the manner of her death, inflicted by offensive footwear. The Middle Eastern belief that shoes are ritually unclean survives. In an infamous 2008 incident, an Iraqi journalist expressed his disgust with President George W. Bush by throwing his shoes at him in a Baghdad press conference. Elsewhere in the world, however, throwing shoes at people can convey the opposite message. In contrast to the Middle Eastern cultural perspective that throwing a shoe at somebody is a mortal insult, there is a belief in other parts of the world that throwing a shoe at somebody brings good fortune.

In medieval Europe, a belief developed that shoes are good luck. Text dating back centuries references shoes thrown at newly married couples to wish them good fortune. The belief that throwing shoes at somebody brought good luck lasted into the modern era. For example, Queen Victoria threw her shoes at British soldiers in 1854 to wish them well as they headed out for the Crimean War. She also wrote in her diary that shoes were thrown into the doorway of Balmoral Castle when it was completed in 1855, for good luck. It was a continuation of another long-held belief, that shoes brought good fortune to homes. For centuries, well-worn shoes were placed in the rafters or inside the walls of homes that underwent renovations, in the belief that doing so wards off witchcraft and evil spirits.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Adams, Tracy – Agnes Sorel and the French Monarchy: History, Gallantry, and National Identity (2022)

Ancient Origins – Filippo Brunelleschi and His Remarkable Renaissance Prank

AV Club – Wikipedia Erected a Page to Explain Ancient Rome’s Fascination With the Phallus

Ball, Warwick – Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire (2000)

CNN – Frank Hayes: The Jockey Who Won a Race Despite Being Dead

Collector – Scourge of the Inner Sea: The Pirates of the Ancient Mediterranean

Cortauldian – Masculinity in Ancient Greece

Daily Beast – The Rhinoceros Who Won an Election by a Landslide

Dover, K. J. – Greek Homosexuality (1978)

Encyclopedia Britannica – The Time Julius Caesar Was Captured by Pirates