History of the Hookah

The ancient water pipe has been used for centuries. It is called by many names, Hookah, Nargile, Shisha, Nargilla, Sheesha….

Hookahs are made for smoking specially prepared tobacco such as Mu'essel, a flavoured mixture of tobacco and treacle as well as fruit. The tobacco can be mixed with apple, apricot, strawberry juice or even wine or cappuccino. Dry tobacco is not used, as it caused irritation to the throat. Other smokers add pomegranate juice or rose oil in their water for added flavour.

Swift-Lite charcoal is being adopted by users in many markets. It is seen as a clean and convenient heat source replacing the more traditional, but difficult to use natural charcoal. Swift Lite charcoal lights instantly and will burn with careful use for up to one hour.

The nargile consists of 4 pieces: Agizlik (mouthpiece), Lüle (the top of the nargile), Marpuç (the tube) and the Gövde (the body of the pipe which is filled with water). All the pieces of the pipe were produced by special craftsmen, who were named after the piece they produced. Even today, the areas where these craftsmen used to concentrate are called by these names, such as "Marpuççular."

From a physical viewpoint, the Hookah uses all the five senses; our vision, as a collectable ornamental art object. Touch through its manipulation. Taste and smell through smoking and hearing by the gurgle of water.
Narghile etiquette includes rules such as never lighting a cigarette from the coals on the hookah. Always rest the hookah on the ground. Never pass the hookah directly to another person, always first put in down and let the next person pick it up.

Rules were created even for lighting the pipe, and if a professional smoker saw anyone lighting it the incorrect way, the culprit would be told in no uncertain term " Do yourself and the sacred nargile a favour and put out the coals by blowing into it."

The nargile smoker hated anyone lighting their cigarettes on their nargile fire because they felt it disturbed the rhythm of the burning charcoal. It was greatly frowned upon if anyone was seen lighting or smoking a nargile not according to the tradition. (from Tierracliente, Nargile : A puff on history reprinted from the Turkish Daily News (3/3/97)

An interesting aspect of Hookah culture is its egalitarianism. Its popularity has transcended class, sex and religion.

A riddle collected in Jordan evokes the feminine narghile figure: Who is this princess standing in her palace with her hand on her hip ? ("'Amîra fî qasrihâ; wa yeduhâ 'elä hasrihâ ?") The pipe bowl is indeed similar to a crown; the baluster body, elegant and rounded, evokes that of a woman. As for the hose curve coiling up around the mast, it can easily be compared to the arm outline. Finally, the palace is a metaphor of the atmosphere in which a narghile session ideally takes place: pillows, tapestries, vegetation, and so on. (The Sacred Nargile)

At the turn of the 20th Century, the Hookah pipe became very popular and fashionable with the Turkish upper class women to be photographed with their pipes. And it had become a significant party status symbol. Western artists had also popularised its exotic image in their Orientalist paintings.

Today, narghile smoking is flourishing in the Arabian-Islamic world as well as in Europe and America. Fashionable new coffee houses, or "neo-Orientalist cafés", are growing in popularity as people discover the smooth, flavoursome taste of the hookah smoke.