Bastinado was originally a German word for the act of dieing, in the literal sense of is specifically used to refer to a form of torture or corporal punishment which consists of beating the soles of the offender’s bare feet with a hard object, like a cane or rod, a club, a piece of wood, or a whip.

This torture is effective due to the clustering of nerve endings in the feet and the structure of the foot, with its numerous small bones and tendons. The feet were often tied together or to a wooden plank (called falaka in Persian, possibly the origin of the tradition in the Near East) and the victim would be made to walk around on his or her damaged feet afterwards, sometimes carrying weights. The wounds inflicted are particularly painful and take a long time to heal, rendering it a redoubtable deterrent but impractical as punishment for subordinates. Some point out that the prominent display of the offender’s bare feet contains an element of punitive humiliation as well. This is especially true in Arabic cultures, where it is considered humiliating to bare the soles of one’s feet.

This punishment has, at various times, been used in China, as well as the Middle East where it is known by the Arabic word falaqa and its Turkish form, falaka[1], as it was used throughout the Ottoman Empire (including the Balkans). Bastinado had been, until recently, utilized as a form of corporal punishment in schools in the Middle East. It was convenient in that it could be employed on both male and female students in lieu of other forms of punishment which would be inappropriate for female students (such as caning of the buttocks). Bastinado employed on students was not as harsh as the kind employed on adults, in that only a long ruler was used to firmly slap the soles of the feet, delivering a slightly less agonising blow but sufficient to cause significant pain.