Three
Water pipe
Argyle; Shisha; Nargile
`Ayn Najm, Lebanon
Lebanese Heritage Museum
About The Lebanese University, `Ayn Najm
19th century
Glass; painted
These water pipes, or araghil (sing. arghile), is made of translucent glass painted with floral patterns in pale colours. The araghil have three main parts: first, you have a bowl for the coals sitting on top of a metal plate. Under this is the body of the arghile, which can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and consists of a gasket and water jar. Connected to the main body is a pipe for smoking. The arghile originated in Persia and later became popular in 17th century Turkey, used by the Ottoman elite as a status symbol. The water pipe became hugely popular, and in 1841 even sparked a diplomatic crisis between France and the Ottoman Empire. However, although it remains popular in the modern Middle East, it was largely replaced by cigarettes in the 20th century. The arghile woks by vaporizing a flavoured tobacco called shisha, which is passed through water and then inhaled. Depending on their placement, the coals can either be used to boil the water and thus create water vapour, or to produce smoke by burning the tobacco. These araghil were used by Ottoman officials in 19th century Lebanon.
Marie Therese Moujabber "Three " in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;lb;43;en
Prepared by: Marie Therese Moujabber
Copyedited by: Flaminia Baldwin
MWNF Working Number: LB 054
Related Content
On display in
Sharing History Exhibition(s)
Economy And Trade | Commodities | Raw MaterialsDownload
As PDF (including images) As Word (text only)