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| Hookah History |
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Hookah
pipes have been around for hundreds of years. During the 17th century, hookah
pipes were often seen in coffee shops or small restaurants along the streets of
Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries. Since then the world of Hookah
smoking has greatly expanded. Although we are unsure of the true origin of the
water pipe, it is believed that the original design for the hookah came from
India or Persia. It was in Turkey that the water pipe completed its revolution
and has hardly changed its style for the last few hundred years. The Turkish
people were the first to make smoking water pipes a common practice and soon
discovered that it could be used in a more convenient way. So, around 500 years
ago, they reshaped the design and added a hose. To this day, the same basic
design is used for each hookah with the option of adding multiple hoses to make
each smoking session more convenient and enjoyable. |
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The hypothesis of an American origin arose from the crossing of speculations on
ways shisha was used through gourds in America and from deep studies as those
conducted at the beginning of the century by a scholar named L. Wiener. The
latter asserted that shisha smoking would have been imported from America to
Africa several centuries before the arrival of Europeans. I. Van Sertima
enriched such a contribution by endeavoring, in his turn, to show that African
men certainly lived in America before the discovery of this last continent and
brought to theirs smoking behaviors like the use of pipes. |
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The Indian (Asia) track
lacks sources. So, here, let us restrict ourselves to quote only two authors
without proceeding with the discussion. J. A. Frank freely asserts that "two
thousand years before the discovery of shisha, it seems that a water pipe
called Dhoom Netra, filled with aromatic and medicinal herbs, and also very
probably with drugs, was smoked". G.Gercek states, without supporting facts,
that narghile was born in India and that the artefact benefited from the
addition of innovative elements as the bowl and the nozzle when it reached the
Ottoman Empire. |
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The Persian origin is
particularly upheld by B.M. Du Toit through ethnographical surveys in southern
Africa. The researcher was interested in the origin of dagga (cannabis) and
repeatedly reports the use of the "dakka" water pipe. From contemporary Iran, a
researcher named Hasan Semsar ascribes the invention of narghile to the
"Persian genius", ex-nihilo, without providing with more details on the
emergence of such an innovation in smoking manners. |
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The possibility of an
African origin for narghile has been submitted by specialists as A. Dunhill and
J.E. Philips. The first of both considers the "dakka" water pipe used by the
"Hottentots" (Khoikhoin), living in the South of the continent, as the
precursor of narghile. As for the second scholar, his research was based on a
detailed and technical discussion, particularly about undertaken excavations
and dating problems posed at Hyrax Hill in Kenya, Sebanzi in Zambia, Engaruka
in Tanzania and in other places of the African continent. |
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To sum up, the social
use of narghile, on a large-scale, can be fixed as simultaneous with the
emergence of the public coffee-house and the adoption of shisha. Today, the
hypotheses we have kept, on account of their pertinence and relevance, ascribe
a South African, Ethiopian or Persian origin to the pipe. A European origin is
also defended by historians of shisha. These last ones consider that narghile
would be a form adopted by the American pipe in the Mediterranean region, in
Africa or in Asia, after the spreading of the latter by the Europeans in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Should they continue in a systematic way,
the archaeological excavations undertaken here and there in southern and
oriental Africa throughout the twentieth century, could indeed come up with the
definitive evidence of the use of water pipes on this continent well before the
critical and symbolic threshold year 1600 represents for the upholders of the
European hypothesis. The case of this Ethiopian cave where water pipe bowls
were discovered, and where the smoked use of cannabis in the fourteenth century
has been confirmed by chemical methods, undoubtedly constitutes a step forward.
from The Sacred Narghile site, courtesy of Rive magazine. |
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Hookah pipes and the act of smoking one has become a favorite Middle Eastern
pastime and it's spreading throughout the world. The hookah, also referred to
as a narghile or narghila, shisha or sheesha, water-pipe, and hubbly-bubbly,
has long inspired great discussions of politics, religion, and the daily
happenings. In social gatherings, the passing of the hose is remarkable- a
narghile is placed in the center of a group and smokers pass the hose to the
next in the circle, all the while exchanging words and sharing ideas in a
playful mode. It is known to bring people together and to bring peace to any
place in which it is used in it's natural state of relaxation. |
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The popularity of the
hookah and the life style behind it has sky-rocketed in recent years, mainly
due to the social nature of hookah smoking. In the United States, where
everything has become so fast paced that people rarely have time to socialize
with family or friends, it certainly contributes to the smoker's integration in
his or her social environment in a brotherly peaceful act of solidarity.
Clusters of hookah smokers can now be seen in most cities around the United
States; rather it's in the private of their own home or at a local hookah
lounge. Many people prefer hookah smoke to cigarettes or hand and glass pipes
because of the cool, smooth flavorful taste of the smoke and soothing sounds of
the bubbling water in the decorative glass vase. |
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The shisha, also called tombac, gouza, moassel, shisha or sheesha, is a special
blend of fresh, dark leaves, fruit pulp, honey or molasses, and glycerine. The
shisha is available in a wide variety of flavors including double apple,
strawberry, melon, pineapple, vanilla, chocolate and rose. This, for some, is
more appealing than cigarette or cigar smoking because it contains only 0.5%
nicotine and no tar. With a vast collection of flavors to choose from and many
other variables to manipulate, hookah smoking is truly an art. Many experienced
smokers enjoy adding ice, fruit juice, milk or wine to water in the glass vase
to change the taste, texture, or effect of the smoke. |
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These days in the cafés
of Cairo, puffing on their hookah water pipes, patrons mutter about the
unstoppable invasion of American fast food and trash television. Few realize
that the hookah itself is stealthily spreading across the globe and is, in
fact, enjoyed by many Americans. |
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NOTE: Several hypotheses on the birthplace of the narghile must be taken into
account. They concern Europe, America, India, Persia and Africa. Those who try
hard to write the official history of smoking mention an American origin for
the latter and a European one for the transmission of its use modes, as the
common pipe, the chibouque or even narghile. Such an argument states that the
Europeans would have taught Asian and African peoples how to smoke,
particularly through the pipe. A consequence is that cannabis would have been
inhaled, neither in Europe, nor in Africa, nor anywhere else, before the
arrival of smoking. |
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