Piece of trivia... showing the sole of a shoe

[nadinbrzezinski]

is a GREAT INSULT in the Arab world.

So people showing shoes has none to do with Bush and shoe flying in Baghdad... that too was a great insult.

[jannyk]

1. I know this, but I don't know the 'origin'. How did it all start? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I got no idea, I will use the google Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeing

Apparently it goes all the way back to Biblical times. That is a LONG TIME.

And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest holy ground.

[NuclearDem]

4. It's because the shoe is seen as unclean in the Muslim faith

Showing someone the sole of your shoe is essentially telling them they're only worthy to see the dirt on your shoes.

[krispos42]

3. Something like waving diapers, perhaps?

Oh, and...

[Poll_Blind]

19. I love that motherfucker having to duck or he would have been beaned like the shithead he is.

Love it. I could watch that a lot more and not get bored.

PB

[Oldtimeralso]

5. It is an Insult

Saddam had a mosaic of Bush I built into a floor so that anyone that entered the building would walk on it, thus showing the sole of their shoes.

[Codeine]

6. This is hardly a newsflash.

Please don't presume we're all idiots. It gets so damned tedious.

[SidDithers]

7. +1...

:thumbsup:

Sid

[NuclearDem]

8. I didn't know about it until I actually started studying Arabic

I think it's just a nice little piece of trivia. :shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Yeah it is just trivia

I went looking and goes back to Biblical Times, and the story of moses removing his shoes to see the dang burning bush. I should have made that connection... alas I needed the wiki to go DING, DING, DING.

[jotsy]

10. Should it be though?

Just trivia, I mean. Can't we carry a spare to hold up every now and again in support of the Egyptian people? Consistently and visibly like every day at noon for just a minute or so until they obtain their goals. I keep thinking they should be able to look to this public for back up, even if figuratively, if the shoe fits I guess.

[StarsInHerHair]

11. so what time period is actually "biblical times", since the Koran

is a few centuries younger than the New Testament? 500A.D.? 400?

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Josiah commissioned this around

oh 700 BCE. Now the legend is 12th century BCE

[StarsInHerHair]

13. you mean like when that area was called Phoenicia?

..."By the eighth century B.C., however, the material culture of the Phoenicians extended southward, and Sidon controlled Dor and Joppa during the Persian period (539-333 B.C). The Achaemenians, an Iranian dynasty under the leadership of Cyrus II, conquered the area in 538 B.C."...
http://phoenicia.org/history.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. A little before, under the Kingdom of Judah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ancient_Israel_and_Judah

King Josiah is believed to have commissioned the finally committing to paper of these stories we call the old testament. Ok to parchment...

It was an effort to create a sense of national pride. THe first person mentioned in the Old testament that we think actually is based on reality is King David, who was around the 10th century BCE, and just a tribal leader.

[StarsInHerHair]

16. It'd be nice if they ever found archaelogical evidence of that but they haven't

yet ..."The roster of Phoenician cities changed during the near millennium-long period beginning in 1200 B.C., reflecting the waxing and waning of their individual fortunes and the impinging historical events of the Near East. At the beginning of the Iron Age, as part of the invasion of the Sea Peoples (groups from the Greek islands, especially Crete), the Philistines occupied the coastal area south of Mt. Carmel, including Dor, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza."...

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. The closest we have of an actual living person

is David...

Now we have found what are believed to be the very small, and all but grandiose, stables of Solomon... very different from the texts

But Abraham, Isaac, Moses, almost all the prophets... no, not really.

We have evidence that Noah existed, a nice little Summerian legend... and the song of songs... one of my all time favs... is based on at least a thousand year old Egyptian lyrical poem...

yeah that will make me very popular with the fundies, really.

:-)

But to me the actual history is far more interesting than the myths.

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. It's the SAME insult. n/t

[leftstreet]

17. What if you're barefoot? Is the sole of your foot an insult?

:beer:

[Poll_Blind]

20. Yes. And so crossing your legs (ankle-on-knee style) is a complete no-no, considered to...

...be offensive to the person sitting next to you. I was reading up on this earlier, found it fascinating.

PB