Chibouk Culture in the Ottoman Empire

Chibouk culture in the Ottoman Empire refers to the whole complex of smoking, hospitality, and status customs that formed around the long-stemmed tobacco chibouk in Ottoman society from the 17th century to the end of the 19th. The chibouk was not merely a smoking implement; it was an indispensable part of coffeehouse conversation and of hospitality in the konak (mansion), and at court it served as an object of display and prestige. The object's form and parts are covered in the entry on the chibouk (çubuk); here, the social face of this culture of pleasure — one with a distinctive place within the world history of the pipe — is described.

From Prohibition to Pleasure

Tobacco reached Ottoman lands at the end of the 16th and start of the 17th century; the details of this first encounter and of the harsh years of prohibition are covered in the entry on tobacco's arrival in the Ottoman Empire. After the 1633 Istanbul fire was blamed on tobacco, enforcement under Murad IV reached as far as capital punishment; but the ban did not last. Following the sultan's death in 1640, enforcement eased, and in 1649 a fatwa by Bahâî Mehmed Efendi, newly appointed şeyhülislam, declared tobacco permissible; the ban effectively ended, and tobacco farming spread rapidly. By the end of the 17th century, six different varieties of tobacco were being grown on Ottoman soil; these leaves form the basis of what is known today as the Oriental tobacco family.

The Ritual of Chibouk Pleasure

In the literature of the period, tobacco was counted, alongside coffee, wine, and opium, among the "four pleasures," and chibouk smoking was most closely associated with coffeehouse conversation. The set of implements used for this pleasure consisted of three parts:

• Bowl (lüle): the fired red-clay chamber in which the tobacco burned.

• Stem (çubuk): the long shaft, made of woods such as cherry or jasmine.

• Mouthpiece (imame): the tip taken into the mouth; the most prized examples were made of flawless white amber.

This set of implements was also a form of social language: the length of the chibouk reflected its owner's rank, and a long chibouk was taken as a sign of high office. The silver-headed, relief-decorated palace chibouks in the Topkapı Palace collection are surviving examples of this display. From the mid-18th century onward, hookah tobacco imported from Iran and known as "tömbeki" was considered first-class; the hookah and the chibouk formed two branches of the same culture of pleasure, existing side by side.

Chibouk-Makers and Bowl-Makers

Making a chibouk was a craft in its own right. Chibouk-makers concentrated especially around Galata and Tophane from the second half of the 17th century onward and formed their own guild in 1723. Bowl production followed two tracks: fine "Tophane work" made for the palace and elite, and plain bowls made for ordinary people; the workshops, clay, and stamps of this craft are covered in detail in the entry on Tophane bowl-making. The stamps masters pressed into their wares can still be read today in excavation finds ranging from Bursa to Silifke Castle, showing that bowl-making was a signed, branded craft.

Decline and Legacy

19. With the spread of cigarettes toward the end of the century, the pleasure of the long chibouk declined rapidly, and the crafts of chibouk- and bowl-making largely died out at the start of the 20th century. Even so, the material traces of this culture proved lasting: fired-clay bowls are today one of the most common categories of finds in Ottoman archaeology. Excavation reports and museum collections still make it possible to trace this pleasure that accompanied the empire's daily life for more than two centuries.