Un peu d'histoire          L'art de l'objet          Dans la littérature

Le narguilé est composé de plusieurs parties qui peuvent chacune être de vraies oeuvres d'art.

The use of narghiles and the smoking of tombeki consists of several sections; the pipe, the head, the body, the hose, and the mouthpiece.

The pipe, is outside the narghile located at its highest pint, and is a plate with holes in it made of potters clay. Since the tobacco was also burned here, this was also referred to as ate_lik or fire pan.

During the Ottoman period, pipe making assumed the aspect of an important branch of the arts, and there were even special pipe markets in Tophane. Good quality potter's clay the color of coral was worked her, and beautiful pipes of every size were made here. It is possible today to see in the Ankara Ethnographic Museum, examples of pipes remaining from ages past which are gilded, decorated, and glazed.

The head was a piece between the pipe and the body. It was made of hard materials in order for it to be resilient. The upper portion was shaped so as to hold the pipe, and this part was decorated with carvings. The head was general made of brass, coper, or bronze. Very special ones were made of silver. Near the point where these are connected to the body, there is a nipple-like protrusion onto which the hose was attached.

The narghile bottle, or body, most often was in the form of a pitcher with a narrow neck and broad belly. Though originally made of a coconut shell and even from gourds, these were subsequently made of glass, china, ceramics, porcelain, rock-crystal, and metals, including silver. The decorations on the narghile bottles made of crystal and cut glass during the Ottoman period are separate masterworks of art in themselves. Nowadays, only plain, ordinary glass is employed, and no attention is given to decoration.

Le flacon du narguilé contient de l'eau, and there is a thin hose descending from the pipe. Thanks to this hose, la fumée entrante est quelque peu nettoyée dans l'eau et une partie de la nicotine du tabac persan est éliminée. The hose is a flexible tube capable of being bent every which way and is attached to the nipple-like protrusion on the upper portion of the head connected to the body. This serves to conduct the smoke cleansed in the narghile bottle to the mouth.

The most beautiful of these hoses were made in the Ottoman period, and in the 19^th Century, their manufacture assumed the aspect of an art, at that time, there was even a special market for them alongside the Egyptian Bazaar, at the approach to the district of Mahmut Pa_a. Here, colourful narghile hoses were manufactured from sheepskin leather. The leather was cut in strips two fingers wide, and after being glued, these were wrapped around an iron rod then tied with thin wires. After drying, the rod was pulled out, thus producing the narghile hose. Since this leather did not keep its resiliency for long periods of time it is difficult to find narghile hoses nowadays. Aujourd'hui, ils sont entièrement fabriqués en matière plastique et sont décorés de tissu ou de velours.

The mouthpiece was attached to the end of the hose and was the part placed in the mouth and sucked upon. In the past, only amber was used to make these mouthpieces, and their manufacture was a separate art. The part of the mouthpieces, and their manufacture was a separate art. The part of the mouthpiece actually placed in the mouth was a thumb-shaped knob. The best mouthpieces were in the form of large sweet water grapes, and were given the name "goat's teat". These thickened towards the middle, tapered off towards the end, and were made of amber. At one time, the mouthpieces made of reddish amber were the most esteemed. Nowadays, these mouthpieces do not receive the importance they deserve, and plastic has assumed the place of amber.

(traduction en cours)

source : Antika, The Turkish Journal of Collectable Art, Février 1986 N° 11, Günay Gercek