Un peu d'histoire
Des origines incertaines
Les origines des pipes à eau sont incertaines et controversées.
L'on peut distinguer plusieurs hypothèses s'attachant à
déterminer un lieu de naissance pour l'objet. Elles concernent
l'Europe, l'Amérique, l'Inde, la Perse
et l'Afrique.
Ceux qui s'efforcent d'écrire l'histoire officielle du tabac
signalent une origine américaine pour le tabac et européenne
pour la transmission des modes d'usage de ce dernier, comme la pipe
ordinaire, la chibouque ou même le narguilé.
Résumé, l'argument consiste à affirmer que ce
seraient les Européens qui auraient appris aux peuples de la
région à fumer, notamment au moyen de la pipe. La proposition
corollaire tranche que le cannabis n'aurait été inhalé,
ni en Europe, ni en Afrique, ni ailleurs, avant l'arrivée du
tabac.
On
peut fixer l'usage social du narguilé, à grande échelle,
comme simultané avec l'apparition du café public et
l'adoption du tabac. Aujourd'hui, les hypothèses retenues
ici en raison de leur pertinence lui attribuent une origine sud-africaine,
éthiopienne ou persane. Une origine européenne est
également mise en avant par des historiens du tabac. Ces
derniers considèrent que le narguilé serait une forme
adoptée par la pipe américaine dans le bassin méditerranéen,
en Afrique ou en Asie, après la diffusion de cette dernière
par les Européens aux seizième et dix-septième
siècles.
Les pipes à eau et les drogues
Une autre version affirme au contraire que le narguilé et
autres pipes à eau furent d'abord inventé pour fumer
le hashish et l'opium. La preuve en est l'utilisation courante du
"bong" chez les fumeurs de cannabis...
D'origine indienne, où il était fait à partir
d'une noix de coco, d'où vient son nom originel narçil,
le narguilé a été adopté par les Chinois
qui l'utilisèrent pour fumer l'opium dans leurs fameuses
pipes à eau. Par la suite, les Perses, puis les différents
pays arabes, et enfin les Turcs l'ont adopté et transformé
jusqu'à lui donner sa forme actuelle.
It
is important to note and as part of Hookah history, that Turkey
revolutionized Hookah smoking and today it is a very important part
of the coffee shop culture. For centuries, even around the time
of Murat the IV, 1623-40, Hookah smoking was popular and remains
so. (traduction en cours)
Le
narguilé porte de nombreux noms à travers les pays
: hookah (Turquie), hooka, huka, shisha, sheesha, shishah (Tunisie,
Egypte), nargile, narghile, et Hubbly Bubbly. Le terme
narguilé lui-même est d'origine persane.
(la
traduction d'un long article turc sur les origines du narguilé
et ses liens avec l'usage de substances "stupéfiantes"
est en cours :)
Throughout
the ages, human beings have shown a special interest in intoxicating
substances, and derived pleasure in delving into other worlds in
their experiments with the new materials of this ype which they
have discovered. For this purpose, they have felt the need for a
variety of devices. One of these devices is the narghile, also known
variously as hookah, water pipe and hubby-bubbly. Narghiles were
first used five centuries ago and they are a device still employed
today-though not very commonly. Research conducted indicates that
they were first used in India.
Born
in India, the narghile spread to the countries of the Near East,
East Asia, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, North and East Africa, and all
the way to the Ottomans. In each country it has been subjected to
various changes, and finally assumed its present form. Called various
names in each country where it is employed, the term is in fact
of Persian origin.
Since
very early times, the Indians have been raising hemp and employing
such plants as medicines. Originally only its seed was used to obtain
cannabis oil, but with time, the qualities of the plant's leaves
were discovered and they were exploited in the production of intoxicants,
thus leading to the discovery of hashish.
Thus
drug was originally employed as a powerful anaesthetic, but with
the admixture of other plants and spices, a sort of paste was produced
and by eating it they made it a pleasure and habit to delve into
a dream world. Not being satisfied with this, they attempted to
obtain the drug in its pure form, for which purpose they felt the
need for various devices. It was the narghile which arose as the
natural result of those desires.
The
precursor of the narghile is the narcil, a type of coconut which
grows commonly in India. The inner meat of this nut was removed
and the shell was pierced, following which a straw was placed inside,
the resulting "device" being the first simple form of the modern
narghile. It was from the name of this nut that this primitive device
was also called narcil.
Subsequently
the device reached Egypt by various routes where its form was somewhat
changed. For example, the body was made from a gourd rather than
from a coconut shell.
Although
the name narcil was still adopted, owing to differences in pronunciation
the /ç/ sound was read as a/g/ and thus the word became entrenched
as nargile, or narghile.
The
Persians saw this device and liked it, and they developed it even
further, adding a number of parts. The body, which originally consisted
of a coconut shell and then a gourd, they made into a porcelain
flask, and instead of the straw, they added a soft and flexible
part which resembled a hose and which was mucn more practical. They
called this part marpic, which in Persian means "snake coil."
Around
that time, tobacco was discovered and with the beginning of its
use as an intoxicant, the Persians experimented with the substance.
For this purpose, they developed a tray to be placed above the body
which would hold the tobacco. Made of bronze to ensure its strength,
this tray was given the name ser, which means "head". It was also
the Persians who first made use of the type of tobacco known as
tömbeki.
The
Arabs also made use of the narghile. Nevertheless, they employed
it in its primitive form, which is to say, using the coconut shell.
Narghiles with bodies of coconut shell, long wooden heads, set on
iron stands and with hoses sewn from thick cloth were in use in
Syria and the Yemen.
The
arrival of the narghile among the Ottomans took place at quite a
late stage. Although there is no specific date indicated, it would
be correct to state that it was used after the introduction of tobacco
into the country. At this point I believe there is value in taking
a look at the establishment of coffee houses in our country.
There
were no coffee houses among the Ottomans until the reign of Sultan
Süleyman the Lawgiver. We learn from the history of Peçevi that
one was first opened in 1554. According to this history, someone
by the name of Hakem from Aleppo and a nobleman by the name of _ems
from Damascus opened a shop at "Tahtelkale" (modern Tahtakale, presently
a commercial district of Istanbul), thus laying the foundations
for the first coffee houses. Initially places frequented by people
referred to as the "rabble," coffee houses subsequently became places
where doctors of law, theologians, and the upper classes met and
talked while drinking coffee. With time, the quality of these places
fell and became increasingly degenerate, and being regarded as haunts
of idlers, they were subjected to vigorous prohibition during the
reign of Murat III.
This
prohibition continued up until the reign of Mehmet III, but since
people could not be prevented from attending such places, even if
only in secret, the prohibition was abolished at the end of his
reign. It was during these years that tobacco entered the country.
Tobacco, arriving from England in ships, was first sold as a drug,
but with the subsequent discovery of its intoxicating properties,
it began to be used exclusively for that purpose, since its consumption
that way was more enjoyable. Thus, on the basis of all these facts,
it would not be wrong to state that the use of narghiles took place
in the 17th Century.
The
Ottomans made narghiles according to their own tastes, and made
them more useable. For example, above the "head" they placed a bowl
the "head" they placed a bowl of baked clay and they added a mouthpiece
to the portion of the hose which entered the mouth. The body they
made of glass, crystal, rock-crystal, porcelain and even silver.
To the heads, which they made of brass and silver, they added a
pipe holder which were decorated at their extremities with plant
motifs and carvings.
There
were considerable differences in terms of manufacture and decoration
between the narghiles employed by the ordinary people (the "commoners")
and by the upper classes (the "greats"). In particular, the jewelled
narghiles decorated with precious stones and manufactured to order
for the palace are worthy of acclaim.
The
narghiles used among the people were quite plain, while some were
manufactured with two or three hoses and used by several people
simultaneously.
For
the date of use of narghiles, whose employment began during the
Ottoman period, it will be helpful to mention the entry into the
country of glass, on account of the use of that material in the
bodies. Glass gained particular value and great developments took
place in the glass industry in the 16th to 18th
Centuries. Indeed, the renown of glassware manufactured in Istanbul
extended outside the borders of the country.
Glassmaking
assumed the aspect of a branch of the arts during the reign of Murat
II, and during the reign of Mustafa III, it was taken under the
protection of the Palace. Nevertheless, since crysatl could not
be obtained by chemical means in our country during this period,
all the valuable Palace glassware of the time was made to order
in Bohemia.
Towards
the end of the 18th Century, the manner of obtaining
cut crystal by chemical means was discovered. Thanks to craftsmen
who were brought from abroad beginning with the reign of Mahmut
I, its manufacture in our country began and crystal were of great
beauty and desbign was produced.
During
the reign of Selim III during the 19th Century, a Mevlevi
by the name of Mehmet Dede set up a workshop in Beykoz, a place
where the famous Beykoz glassware was made. Though following these
workshops, which from time to time ceased activity and from time
to time were open under the protection of the Padishahs, a glass
factory was established at Pa_abahçe in 1899 by a Jew by the name
of Saul Modiani, it was unable to compete with the glassware being
then imported from Europe and halted production. The first glass
factory in the modern sense was established at Pa_abahçe on the
orders of Atatürk in 1934 during the Republic period. The most beautiful
of the narghiles used during the ottoman period were those made
at the Beykoz workshops.
To
give a complete definition of a narghile, one could say that it
was a device which permitted the smoking of a type of tobacco known
as tömbeki by means of eliminating excess nicotine by passing the
smoke through water. Tömbeki or Persian tobacco, is a type originating
in Iran and which is used only in narghiles. The leaves and stalks
of this tobacco are picked together, and after being subjected to
special processing is made usable. Tömbekiis not chopped like tobacco,
but is broken up by hand. A good quality of tömbeki was at one time
grown in our country in the regions of Hatay and Konya.
Sources
: http://www.sacrednarghile.com
Antika, The Turkish Journal of Collectable Art, Février
1986 N° 11, Günay Gercek
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