Pleasures of the hookah

(P&T) Seventeenth-century Istanbul: An elegantly dressed woman sits cross-legged on a low cushion before her nargile, a Turkish water pipe handcrafted by the finest artisans in all of Istanbul. It is a beautifully decorated Beykoz crystal flacon, ornamented in silver with a long sinuous tube covered in velvet extending from it. The ceramic pipe bowl is filled with dark, strong Latakiyya tobacco imported from Syria. Her servant brings a nugget of oak charcoal and carefully places it on top of the dampened tobacco as the woman brings the tube to her mouth, drawing leisurely on the amber mouthpiece in a series of slow, controlled puffs. Continued

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