When Raaj Kumar mouthed that cinematic dialogue to Meena Kumari in Pakeezah, “Aapke paan … Zameen par mat utaariyega, maile ho jaayenge,” changed into he circuitously imploring her to land her toes on a high-quality upholstered ottoman rather? Possible.
Placing a footstool underneath someone’s worn-out soles (or, better, gifting them a chunk) is nothing less than a royal gesture. Royal, because the exercise of the usage of footstools may be traced back to the Ottoman Empire (and probably even a few components of India). From those days later, the footstool culture gave upward thrust to an army of equally comforting objects—the hassock, pouf, tuffet, and ottoman.
Ottoman: A Curious Case
We’ve all been taught that the ottoman, a coveted upholstered backless seat, received its identity from its namesake empire, christened after its founder, Osman I (‘Uthman’ in Arabic). Consistent with common perception, the norm was returned for humans to prop their feet on stools stacked with cushions at home or in tents. The credit for the ottoman’s layout goes to Turkish carpet weavers, who created such footrests using bales of cotton, says Debbie Koopman, a spokesperson at catalog company Spiegel Inc. This method, in flip, is likely derived from the historical Egyptian process of turning material and tender natural materials into low stools—a contraption supposed to make amends for the sparsity of timber in the desolate tract of the United States of America. (The abnormal wooden frame could be padded with leather, so it turned into secure to sit down or kneel on.)
Ottoman: Alternate History
Another concept states that the ottoman changed into the primary form of residential seating in medieval Turkey and facilitated human bonding. Engin Ozcan, a researcher at Ankara’s Bilkent University, says the word ‘ottoman’ also means ‘divan’—banquette-like sectional furnishings that hug or wrap around three room partitions. Typically piled with pillows, this seating style became common throughout council conferences (divan) among sultans and their commanders. The ottoman arrived in Europe in the 18th or early 19th century and was given its call due to their role in Turkish everyday lifestyles.
The earliest proof of the term’s utilization became in France in 1729 as ‘ottoman. But the phrase entered the English lexicon after Thomas Jefferson’s memorandum discovered his buy of a velvet ‘ottoman—likely an armchair—1789 during his Paris tour. Moreover, perhaps after it arrived in the West, the divan-like piece shrank into smaller gadgets that easily stood in a nook or circular seats surrounding a vertical pole or column as seen within the lobbies of many present-day motels.
Ottoman: Turn of The Century
By the 19th century, the ottoman shifted from the walls to assume a center degree and became round or octagonal. While those versions had backs or palms, the ottoman today functions none and normally comes with buttoned upholstery, castors, or storage.
Ottoman: The ‘Napoleonic’ Version
As with some other principles, when the French invaded Egypt at the flip of the 18th century, they saw the locals use a distinct fashion of footstool. Egypt then changed into an Ottoman territory, and the loads regularly suffered acts of cruelty and punishment. When humans came home after their ordeal, they would rest their tired, tortured feet on these footstools. The French later took back this style of furnishings. Contrarily, it’s viable that Western European travelers brought this Near Eastern layout from their excursions to Greece and the Balkans.
Still, why the call ‘ottoman and then ‘ottoman’? Was it a literal try to hold the ottoman below one’s feet? That’s something to sit and mull over.
