19th C. Persian Smoking Etiquette

Though smoking is still a very popular habit in Iran, formerly Persia, lawmakers there implemented a tobacco smoking law which banned smoking in all outdoor and indoor public places, places of work, and while on public transport.– Public domain image of hookah smoking in Persia

THE WEED IN PERSIA… AN ORIENTAL LAND, SAID TO BE THE SMOKEN'S PARADISE.

The Persian's Social Position Shown by the Number and Value of His Pipes

The Eternal Water Pipe – The Etiquette of Smoking

Persia is the smoker's paradise. In the first place, tobacco is cheap; fourteen pounds of it in the cured leaf cost from three to ten shillings. There is no middleman or manufacturer to mix, chop, scent, flavor and adulterate it. The grower cures it and packs it in bags of skin. In these bags the merchant sells it to the retailer; and then the smoker, pipe in hand, samples the various lots, and purchases from a pennyworth to a bagful, as seemeth to him good. 

There are various kinds of tobacco in Persia: the leaf tobacco, which is smoked in the kalian, for hubble-bubble; the Kurdish tobacco, which is almost white, and consists of the leaves and stalks of the plant coarsely pulverized. This is a very fragrant pipe tobacco, and may be obtained mild or excessively strong, and it is smoked in chibonques or in the Arab short clay pipe. The only recommendations of the Arab pipe are its cheapness and its portability. It is a simple tube of clay about six inches long, with a bore an inch in diameter; it is constructed in the middle, and bent at nearly a right angle. It is essentially the poor man's pipe. Crammed with a Kurdish tobacco, of which it will hold half an ounce, it is passed from hand to band until it is smoked out.

In the north of Persia and in the capital the papiros, or cigarette, is rapidly gaining ground; the commonest Samsoon tobacco is used as a rule, or a very similar article grown in Ghilan and rather superior to it. But the real national pipe of Persia is the kalian. Among the merchant and tradesman class the kalian is over between the lips. The peripatetic vender of smoke is seen in Persia in every place where men congregate for business or pleasure. Even at executions the criminal will ask for and receive a farewell whiff of the eternal water pipe before he is blown from a gun. I have seen a man undergoing the long agonies of crucifixion seeking solace in the kalian.

THE PERSIAN AND HIS PIPES

The social position of the Persian is shown by the number and the value of his pipes. The pipebearer to a great man is a highly paid domestic, who may have in his care from fifty to a hundred pipes, varying in value from £5 to £500. The pipes of the King and of the Royal Princes are often made entirely of gold incrusted with a profusion of gems; the middle and upper classes generally content themselves with kalians whose reservoirs and stems are of solid silver, the bowl only being of gold ornamented with gems or enamels. 

The religious classes mostly affect a kalian of the simplest kind; the water reser voir being a wide mouthed bottle of course porous clay, the stem being composed of curiously turned wood stained a bright crimson, and the bowl made of a black porcelain resembling ebony in appearance. But in the privacy of their own harems, the holy men do not disdain to smoke the costly pipes of their wives; for everybody smokes in Persia - old men and maidens, young men and children - and the old women are the most inveterate smokers of all.

Among the middle classes the water reservoir is often composed of glass, elaborately cut and often decorated with the florid colored and gilt ornamentation which Turkish art has rendered familiar to us. These glass reservoirs, for which there is an enormous market throughout Persia and central Asia, are made in Russia. Rose water is frequently used in place of the vulgar fluid; rose leaves, tiny rosebuds, and the immature fruit of the almond or plum are tossed into it, and as the smoker at each inhalation sets the liquid in violent motion, a pleasant sight is thus offered for his contemplation, much resembling the pretty toys that may be seen in some of the filter shops in London. In the hot weather, a porous clay reservoir is affected by all classes, as it is supposed to cool the water that purifies the fragrant smoke; they will even ice the water. The water is changed every time the pipe is lighted, and is itself not without its uses; for it is an ever handy and never failing emetic – useful thing in a country where poisoning is not infrequent.

ETIQUETTE AND PUNCTILIO

Probably the Persians are the most poetical as well as the most practical people in the world. All through the summer the stems of their pipes are decorated with circles of tiny moss rose buds; or, the interstices having been filled with grass seeds or grains of corn, the pipe is handed to the smoker covered with rows of sprouting verdure an inch and a half long. This decoration of pipes is part of the duty of the pipe bearer or of the ladies of the harem, and the pipe bearer's office is no sinecure. He has several stocks of tobacco of varying quality.

The etiquette and punctilio of pipe smoking are endless. When a visitor is offered a pipe, and there is not a second one, he declines it at once; his host must smoke first. This, if the entertainer be much superior in position, be will actually do, but otherwise ho declines, and the guest, having first offered the pipe to the other visitors, who decline it as a matter of course, proceeds to smoke, and then it is handed round to everybody in order of rank. 

No business in the east can be done without the smoking of many water pipes; it forms a large portion of the enjoyment of the Oriental bath, it fills up the pauses of conversation, and, when a man is at a loss for an answer, it gives him time to think. The very sound of the bubbling water in a hot country is soothing to the ear. That it is not smoked in Europe is probably due to the fact that he who would smoke the Persian water pipe would need to keep a Persian servant to fill it for him. - Foreign Letter, 1887

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19th C. Persian Etiquette

The manners of the courtly occupant of a Teheran mansion  are guided by etiquette that is indeed 'a law of the Medes and Persians, which changes not.' ~ Depiction of ancient Persians and Medes

A Country That is Nothing if Not Ceremonious

The manners of the courtly occupant of a Teheran mansion are guided by an etiquette that is indeed ‘a law of the Medes and Persians, which changeth not.’ The visitor sends notice an hour or two, previous to calling. If the visit is one of importance, notice is sent the previous day. You will go in a fashion suited to your social position and the rank of the host. Whether on horseback or in a carriage you will be accompanied by a number of mounted attendants.

As you approach the house, servants, mounted or on foot, come forth to meet you, and one returns with speed to announce your coming. A dozen attendants escort you to the reception-room. According to your relative rank, the host meets you at the foot of the staircase, at the door, or at the upper part of the room. The question of seats is one also requiring the utmost circumspection in observing the various shades of rank.

An 1880's collector card depicting the Shah's birthday holiday in Persia

If your rank is superior to that of your host you are invited to occupy a sofa alone, at the upper corner, while the host sits on a chair, or on the floor at your right. The left is more honorable than the right in Persia. If of equal rank, he occupies the sofa with you ; but if you are inferior, then the positions are reversed. The upper corner of the room is in any case the most honorable position. If a number are present of various ranks, each one knows his place at a glance. The passing of refreshments is also a matter of undeviating strictness, the number and quality depending on the time of day and the character of the gneet.


The kalian, or waterpipe, offers a fine opportunity for a display of Persian manners. According to precept and custom, a Mohammedan cannot smoke the same pipe with a Christian, and, except on rare occasions when the host is a man of progressive views, a separate pipe is furnished for a European visitor. But among Persians, it is the custom for the highest in rank to receive the pipe first, offering it to each in turn before smoking himself. For an inferior to accept the offer is an incredible offense against good manners. But, each in turn after this ceremony, takes a few whiffs at the pipe, all taking care to eject the smoke from the bowl before offering it to the next. The attendants on such an occasion leave their shoes at the door and retire backwards. —Ex-Minister Benjamin, in Daily Alta, December, 1885

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is this Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette... A Tale of Two Persias

Nāṣer al-Dīn Shāh, also spelled Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh (born on July 17, 1831 in Tehrān, Persia—died on May 1, 1896, Tehrān). Qājār shah of Iran (1848–96) began his reign as a reformer, but over time became increasingly conservative, failing to understand the accelerating need for change or for a response to the pressures brought by contact with the Western nations.

Persian Civilization  

I have been much surprised to hear even well-educated Englishmen, in recent discussions on Persia, speak of the Persian Nation as if it were completely wanting in civilization and were ages behind Europe in manners, customs, and ideas. Such a false impression of the characteristics and social condition of our good friends, the neighbors of our Indian Empire, is, I think, due to ignorance, and I fear also to insular prejudice.  

Persia has not progressed as Europe has done, but Persian civilization and Persian art had reached a high degree of development when England was covered with tangled forests and its inhabitants were half-clothed savages, whose highest skill was shown in the slaughter of wild animals with the rudest of weapons. Persian civilization has not retrograded, though Persian art is certainly stifled by the introduction of cheap but inartistic articles from the commercial West.  

In Persia, a polite etiquette is as strictly observed as in any country in the world, and though, in some trifles, the manners of a Persian gentleman may appear strange and even amusing when observed in the West, it is safe to say that nothing which a Persian gentleman would likely to do when mixing in Western society would in any way shock the delicate feelings of that society. In this respect it is fortunate that the recent journeyings of the Shah and his suite were sufficiently extended to give a practical and widespread contradiction to the numerous absurd stories which had been current concerning the disagreeable peculiarities of Persian manners and customs. 

As regards habits of personal cleanliness, on which Englishmen so greatly pride themselves, it may astonish many of my readers to learn that the Persians, with considerable reason, consider themselves far superior to any Westerners in this respect. I will only mention, as an instance, that the Persian considers that to remain sitting in a small bath and to commence and complete ablutions in the same water, is far from a cleanly habit, and it is one which is never practiced in the heated baths which the native frequents with such pleasure in Persia, and which he greatly misses when traveling into the West— News From London, January, 1890 

Late 19th Century Persian Family

Persian Etiquette 

... In spite of his jewels and external splendor, the Shah-in-Shah ("King of Kings") is, according to European notions, a savage in many respects proud, willful, sensual, and arbitrary. If punctuality be "the politeness of princes," as it is said to be, the Shah would, in consequence of his utter indifference to engagements, be one of the most ill-mannered men in the world.  

He kept the parade at Potsdam, ordered by the Kaiser, waiting a couple of hours. He kept the Queen for half an hour at the railway station waiting for him. He would not go to breakfast when it was announced, at the time of invitation, but walked about in the garden, and then, seeing an arbor which pleased him, desired to have his breakfast brought there. When he sat at dinner yesterday he put his fingers in his plate and ate with them, and if he came on a piece of some dish which he did not like, he took it out of his mouth and threw it down—not on the ground, but on the Queen's (Empress') dress.  

If free from the more horrid vices attributed to Persians by travelers, he is quite without shame or scruple in his disregard of what is called mortality by Christians and good Musulmen. I came from Potsdam in the same carriage with some of his suite—very fine gentlemen as far as their lace and clothing went—but with all the frivolity and arrogance of ignorant and uneducated men. Their talk was of their own prowess and of clothes; how they could ride better than any people in the world, because they could back a horse from the desert and ride him, whereas Europeans rode only horses which were already broken in —a Prussian officer dryly remarked, "the difference is that we direct the course of our horses, and that your horses follow their own."  

They all spoke French, and the Shah-in-Shah knows it much better than he would be thought to do from his mode of speaking it, as when he is quite at his ease he can talk it pretty fluently. But he is not much at his ease with European barbarians, and it is ludicrous to see him standing alone in a crowd with a clear space round him and no one to talk to, for he balances first one leg and then on another, "like a hen on a hot griddle," and does not know what to do with them or his hands. 

When he turns his back and the spectator calmly surveys his exterior, freed from the distracting influences of his diamonds, the Shah does not present an imposing appearance. I admit that the backs of most people fail to impress one, but his Majesty's tailor has rendered his "revers" quite abnormally ridiculous by making his frock-coat with a multitude of fine plaits like those of a Highlander's kilt or of a lady of Queen Bess' time over the hips, and so all round. His face is seldom animated, and there is something incongruous in the position of his respectable gold spectacles, á le Thiers, on his aquiline nose, under a Persian cap, and over all these, diamonds.  

Before I close, and an illustration of their character, which in some respects is the same as that of their ancestors, I may mention that they told some Prussians that the campaign in 1856 was in their favor. The reason they gave was curious. "The British retired Persia—that showed they were beaten. Had they been victorious, they would have remained." "But the Shah signed a treaty granting all the British demands and apologizing for the offenses committed by his people." Yes that may be so, but it was not because we were obligated to do it."  

They made some appeals to the enormous old Colonel of Police, who is famous for the rigidity of his manners and the severity with which he guards the morals of the city, to relax his code in their favor. And were not at all successful. The Shah has, however, some reason for thinking that the high tone of the Police Director is not maintained uniformly, for he has, as I think I told you already, added to the number of his wives here, if report be true, and espoused a girl of fifteen whom he saw by accident, and immediately "proposed" to by a representation to her mother, which that good lady accepted, as there was a provision made for her daughter's future in Persia.  

There has been some trouble in teaching the Shah and his followers that women are to be treated with respect, even though they go about with their faces uncovered, and one of the most useful lessons they will carry back from Europe is that which will teach them to consider their wives their equals, and not their slaves —if they learn it. There is a great "if," for they do not at all approve of all they see here. From New York, June, 1873

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia