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.