A hookah is a traditional Middle Eastern or Asian device for smoking. The hookah is also known as a water pipe, narghile/arghileh, shisha, kalyan,ghelyoon, or hubble-bubble.

Recently, hookah bars serving traditional flavored tobacco have appeared to serve Middle Eastern communities in the Western world as well as in upscale coffee shops.

Technique

Substances used for smoking hookah need not be completely dry. The most commonly used substance (known as tobamel or maassel) is a 1:2 mixture of tobacco with a sweet substance such as honey, molasses, or semi-dried fruit. Originally tobacco was mixed with one of these sweeteners to form jurâk (e.g. Zhaghoul brand), a flavorless, moistened tobacco. Fruit-flavored shisha (SHEEh-shuh) got its start in the late 1980s when Egyptian tobacco companies experimented with flavored tobacco as a way to sell more products to women. Today, shisha tobacco comes in many flavours, such as apple, strawberry, melon, cappuccino or mint, and is often mixed with dried fruit extracts. Tobacco-free herbal molasses mixtures are also available.

In a hookah, the mixture of tobacco is not directly burnt, but is heated to a low temperature using lit coals or an electric device (as in Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Persian Gulf). These coals usually rest on a metal mesh or perforated aluminum foil which covers a clay or metal bowl containing the tobacco preparation, although traditional smokers sometimes place the coals directly upon the maassel, producing a stronger smoke. When a user inhales through the hose, pressure differences cause air to rush into the hookah through its only open point - the head where the maassel is lit. This causes the coals to heat up, heating the maassel in turn, and producing smoke. The smoke then enters the body of the nargile, and running down through the pipe inside the body it is pulled into a receptacle of water which is affixed (airtight) to the bottom of the device. The receptacle, made of glass or metal, contains water which filters and cools the smoke. This main-pipe goes underneath the waterlevel, and smoke is pulled out through it directly into the water, bubbling back up into the top of the receptacle (the smoke chamber) which is initially empty. The smoker inhales this smoke through a long hose connected directly to the smoke chamber. The hose is usually either of a metal coil wrapped in cloth, or otherwise a plastic hose, either version often ending with a metal or wooden mouthpiece.