PUFFING AT THE OLD HUBBLE-BUBBLE
The nargile was introduced to Turkey from either India or Persia,
and provided centuries of enjoyment for Turkish smokers. In Ottoman Istanbul the water
pipe or hubble-bubble pipe became an objet d’art with bottles of crystal, coloured glass
or even silver, finials in the form of silver flowers or fruits, gilded pipe bowls, and
amber mouthpieces. They were a decorative appurtenance of coffee houses and wealthy houses
alike. Until relatively recently all coffee houses in Istanbul had a special corner
reserved for nargile smokers, and if by accident you might sit among them the disgruntled
glances soon obliged you to move elsewhere.
Nargile smokers used to be the earliest and most coverted
customers at Istanbul’s coffee houses. At the first light, rubbing their eyes, they
would sit upon the couch or sedir before the newly lit stove waiting for their
morning nargile before setting out to work. Like everything else from the past the nargile
has been largely forgotten. However, although it is no longer the national pastime it once
was, it is kept alive in a few coffee houses in such districts of Istanbul as Beyazıt,
Aksaray, Topkapı, Unkapanı, Kasımpaşa, Beşiktaş and Kadıköy by old and new
adherents of this traditional pipe.
An advanced grade nargile smoker may spend up to three hours over
the ceremony. Most such smokers have their own personal nargile at the coffee house. This
is kept away from sight and used by no one else even if the smoker does not come for
months. Still there are some who carry their own silver mouthpiece with them in their
waistcoat pocket just in case someone else might have used it meanwhile and defiled the
amber mouthpiece with their lips.
The dedicated smoker brings his own piece of the finest tömbeki
tobacco for the one trusted waiter who knows exactly how much to dampen and place on the lüle,
and how large a piece of live coal to set on top it. The most famous coffee houses have
today disappeared, but their memory remains; such as Pirinçci in Kuledibi, Güllü Agop
Kıraathanesi in Gedikpaşa, Valide Kıraathanesi in Eminönü, Ligor Kıraathanesi under
the Galata Bridge and Erzurum Çayevi. Emirgan Çınaraltı still survives but the nargile
ceremonial has gone, along with its peaceful bubbling sound and wavering smoke.
One place where nargile smoking has not been forgotten is Erenler
Nargile situated in Çorlulu Ali Paşa Medrese at Çemberlitaş between the Blue Mosque
and the Covered Bazaar. Of the 150 or so regular smokers, 30 have their own nargile. At
all times of day curious tourists can be seen here watching the puff away at their pipes.
A word of advice if you happen to be in such an establishment:
Lighting your cigarette from the bowl of someone’s nargile is an unforgivable sin, and
will certainly infuriate the smoker. Erenler Nargile’s proprietor Şükrü Usta of
Sivas, who has been in this business for 20 years, is optimistic about the future of
nargile smoking. He says that many new customers try out the nargile every day, and that
some become regulars. He even serves that breed of early morning smokers which I had
assumed to be extinct.
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