Hookah
A hookah, shisha, or waterpipe is a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco, flavored tobacco, or sometimes cannabis, hashish and opium. The smoke is passed through a water basin—often glass-based—before inhalation.
The major health risks of smoking tobacco, cannabis, opium and other drugs through a hookah include exposure to toxic chemicals, carcinogens and heavy metals that are not filtered out by the water, alongside those related to the transmission of infectious diseases when hookahs are shared or not properly cleaned. Hookah and waterpipe use is a global public health concern, with high rates of use in the populations of the Middle East and North Africa as well as in young people in the United States, Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia.
The hookah or waterpipe was invented by Abul-Fath Gilani, an Iranian physician of Akbar, in the Indian city of Fatehpur Sikri during Mughal India. The hookah spread from the Indian subcontinent to Persia first, where the mechanism was modified to its current shape, and then to the Ottoman empire. Alternatively, it could have originated in the Safavid dynasty of Persia, from where it eventually spread to the Indian subcontinent.
Despite tobacco and drug use being considered a taboo when the hookah was first conceived, its use became increasingly popular among nobility and subsequently widely accepted. Burned tobacco is increasingly being replaced by vaporizing flavored tobacco. Still the original hookah is often used in rural South Asia, which continues to use tumbak and smoked by burning it directly with charcoal. While this method delivers a much higher content of tobacco and nicotine, it also incurs more adverse health effects compared to vaporizing hookahs.
The word hookah is a derivative of "huqqa", a Hindustani word, of Arabic origin. Outside its native region, hookah smoking has gained popularity throughout the world, especially among younger people.
Names and etymology
In the Indian subcontinent, the Hindustani word huqqa is used and is the origin of the English word "hookah". The widespread use of the Indian word "hookah" in the English language is a result of the colonization in British India, when large numbers of expatriate Britons first sampled the water pipe. William Hickey, shortly after arriving in Calcutta, India, in 1775, wrote in his Memoirs:Arabic أرجيلة is the name most commonly used in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Iraq, while nargilah is the name most commonly used in Israel. It derives from nārgil, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit word nārikela, meaning coconut, suggesting that early hookahs were hewn from coconut shells.
In Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and Bulgaria, or is used to refer to the pipe, while šiša refers to شیشه meaning glass bottle in Persian. The pipes there often have one or two mouth pieces. The flavored tobacco, created by marinating cuts of tobacco in a multitude of flavored molasses, is placed above the water and covered by pierced foil with hot coals placed on top, and the smoke is drawn through cold water to cool and filter it. In Albania, the hookah is called "lula" or "lulava". In Romania, it is called narghilea.
"Narguile" is the common word in Spain used to refer to the pipe, although "cachimba" is also used, along with "shisha" by Moroccan immigrants in Spain. The word "narguilé" is used in Portuguese. "Narguilé" is also used in French, along with "chicha".
Arabic شيشة, through Ottoman Turkish word شیشه, itself a direct loanword from Persian شیشه meaning "glass container", is the common term for the hookah in Egypt, Sudan and also other Arab world regions such as Arab Peninsula, Algeria, Tunisia. It is used also in Morocco and Somalia. In Yemen, the Arabic term مداعة is also used, but for pipes using pure tobacco.
In Persian-speaking countries, this kind of water pipe is called which is a hypercorrection of. It is included in the earliest European compendium on tobacco, the tobacologia written by Johan Neander and published in Dutch in 1622. It seems that over time water pipes acquired a Persian connotation as in eighteenth-century Egypt the most fashionable pipes were called Karim Khan after the Persian ruler of the day. This is also the name used in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus.
In Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, a hookah is called.
In Kashmiri, hookah is called "Jajeer".
In Maldives, hookah is called "Guduguda".
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, hookah is called "Shisha".
In the Philippines, hookah is called "hitboo" and normally used in smoking flavored marijuana.
In Sindhi, another language of South Asia, it is called huqqo.
In Vietnam, hookah is called ''hookah shisha and shisha is called "shisha tobacco".
History
In the Indian city of Fatehpur Sikri, Roman Catholic missionaries of the Society of Jesus arriving from the southern part of the country introduced tobacco to the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great. Louis Rousselet writes that the physician of Akbar, Hakim Aboul Futteh Ghilani, then invented the hookah in India.However, a quatrain of Ahlī Shirazi, a Persian poet, refers to the use of the ḡalyān, thus dating its use at least as early as the time of the Shah Ṭahmāsp I. It seems, therefore, that Abu'l-Fath Gilani should be credited with the introduction of the ḡalyān, already in use in Persia, into India. There is, however, no evidence of the existence of the water pipe until the 1560s. Moreover, tobacco is believed to have arrived in India in the 17th century, until then cannabis was smoked in India, so that suggests another substance was probably smoked in Ahlī Shirazi's quatrain, perhaps through some other method.
Following the European introduction of tobacco to Persia and India, Hakim Abu'l-Fath Gilani, who came from Gilan, a province in the north of Persia, migrated to Hamarastan. He later became a physician in the Mughal court and raised health concerns after smoking tobacco became popular among Indian noblemen. He subsequently envisaged a system that allowed smoke to be passed through water in order to be 'purified'. Gilani introduced the ḡalyān after Asad Beg, the ambassador of Bijapur, encouraged Akbar I to take up smoking. Following popularity among noblemen, this new device for smoking soon became a status symbol for the Indian aristocracy and gentry.
Modern development
Instead of copper, brass and low-quality alloys, manufacturers increasingly use stainless steel and aluminium. Silicone rubber compounds are used for hookah hoses instead of leather and wire. New materials make modern hookahs more durable, eliminate odors while smoking and allow washing without risks of corrosion or bacterial decay. New technologies and modern design trends are changing the appearance of hookahs. Despite the obvious benefits of modern hookahs, because of high production cost and lack of modern equipment in traditional hookah manufacturing regions, most hookahs are still produced with older technologies.Culture
South Asia
India
The concept of hookah is thought to have originated in medieval India. Once the province of the wealthy, it was tremendously popular especially during Mughal rule. The hookah has since become less popular; however, it is once again garnering the attention of the masses, and cafés and restaurants that offer it as a consumable are popular. The use of hookahs from ancient times in India was not only a custom, but a matter of prestige. Rich and landed classes would smoke hookahs.Tobacco is smoked in hookahs in many villages as per traditional customs. Smoking tobacco-molasses is now becoming popular among the youth in India. There are several chain clubs, bars and coffee shops in India offering a wider variety of, including non-tobacco versions. In 2011, hookah was banned in Bangalore. However, it can be bought or rented for personal usage or organized parties.
Koyilandy, a small fishing town on the west coast of India, once made and exported hookahs extensively. These are known as Malabar Hookhas or Koyilandy Hookahs. Today these intricate hookahs are difficult to find outside Koyilandy and are becoming difficult even to find in Koyilandy itself.
As hookah resurges in India, there have been numerous raids and bans recently on hookah smoking, especially in Gujarat.
Pakistan
Although it has been traditionally prevalent in rural areas for generations, smoking hookahs has become very popular in the cosmopolitan cities of Pakistan. One can see many cafés in Pakistan offering hookah smoking to its guests. Many households even have hookahs for smoking or decoration purposes.In Punjab, Pakhtunkhwa, and in northern Balochistan, the topmost part on which coals are placed is called chillum.
In big cities like Karachi and Lahore, cafes and restaurants offered Hookah and charged per hour. In 2013, it was banned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The cafe owners started offering shisha to minors, which was the major reason for the ban.