The history of the hookah
Most often its birth is attributed to 16th-century India and the court physician Abul-Fath Gilani: at the court of the Great Mughals he invented passing the smoke through water — supposedly to make it milder. It's a pretty story, though historians still argue about where it actually began — some point to Persia, others trace it even further.
The hookah as a social institution
From India and Persia the hookah migrated to the Ottoman Empire and instantly became more than a way to smoke; it turned into a whole social institution. In Istanbul coffeehouses people would sit around it for hours, and refusing a hookah offered by the host was considered almost an insult. In essence, it was a ritual of hospitality neatly disguised as a cloud of smoke.
Why we love the hookah
People don't love the hookah for the smoke. They love it for the pause.
You can't smoke it on the run, between two tasks, with a single movement — it requires you to sit down, exhale and stay. Preferably not alone. Conversations around it last longer, toasts sound more sincere, and silence stops being awkward.
Names and routes
The names, by the way, reveal the whole route:
- “shisha” — from the Persian for "glass"
- “kalyan” — from Persian qalyan
- hookah — from Indian huqqa
One object that has gathered half a map onto itself.
So when we say we love the hookah, we are being a little coy. Actually, we love what surrounds it: an evening that isn't rushing anywhere, and the people we want to linger with.
