People have been smoking hookah pipes for over 500 years. Their popularity has steadily grown, and now people enjoy a hookah pipe in almost every country in the world.

The Early Days Of  Hookah Pipes

photo credit: WomEOS

It all began in India during, and before, the reign of Emperor Akbar (1542 – 1605), a far thinking and innovative Mongol Emperor who ruled India at the time.

During Akbar’s time, in the area around Rajasthan both east and west of what is now the Pakistani border, a crude forerunner of the hookah was smoked, using a simple coconut shell and pipe.

This simple version of the hookah pipe was used primarily for opium and hashish and hence its use was limited to those who partook in these drugs.

Hookah Pipes Enjoy An Early Popularity

However, with the growth in popularity of tobacco, all this began to change. In Akbar’s court the simple hookah pipe was adapted to the smoking of tobacco. And so the basic form of the hookah pipes we know today, was born.

It became de rigor during Akbar’s reign and especially in his court for Indian noblemen to partake of a fashionable hookah pipe, and from this early interception the popularity of pipes hookah quickly swept through much of the Arab world gaining special popularity in Iran, Egypt and Turkey.

The Hookah Pipe Grows In Popularity And Becomes An Established Part Of Cafe Culture

photo credit: John Picken

It was in these countries, but especially Turkey, where hookah pipes, and the ritual and tradition surrounding them, really established themselves.

Especially suited to a cafe culture, the hookah pipe easily lent itself to the relaxed congenial atmosphere and slow pace of conversation. And along with endless cups of strong black coffee, certain modes of use became part of hookah pipe culture. Particular ways of holding the hose, of handling the charcoal and of packing the tobacco became so established as to become as important as the smoking itself.

It quickly became an integral part of Turkish, and other North African and middle Eastern, culture and still is today.

The Hookah Pipe Becomes A World Wide Phenomenon

Emigration from hookah pipe using countries, and improvement in the speed and ease of travel generally, has meant that the popularity of  pipes hookah has spread all over the world, to Africa, to Asia and to Europe and North America.

As its popularity has grown the hookah pipe has been subject to numerous changes in design and shape, until we have the many sophisticated and artistic forms that we know today.

However, it is worth remembering that in essence, it is little changed from Akbar’s time, consisting as its fundamental parts, a water chamber to cool the smoke, a bowl for tobacco, and a long hose for smoking.

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