For most people, the first layer of footwear was a soft leather sock called a mest or an iç edik (inner shoe). It was worn indoors. To go outside, people slipped the mest into an edik, or outer shoe.
Leather socks were one of the Arab innovations that traveled alongside Islam. Nowadays, all-leather or leather-and-elastic versions of these socks, called khuff, are sold for wear in mosques, but in the 16th century they were everyday wear across the Islamic world.
Ayşe Sultan’s mest and edik, mid-17th century.