The origin of Ho**ah smoking can be dated millennia back and its initial traces have been found in the North Western provinces of India alongside the border of Pakistan in the state of Rajasthan and Gujarat. According to Cyril Elgood who does not mention his source, it was in India where Hakim Abu’l-Fatḥ Gīlānī (d. 1588), an Iranian physician at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar I (1542 - 1605
AD) invented the idea. Following the European introduction of to***co to India, Hakim Abul Fateh Gilani a descendant of Abdul-Qadir Gilani came from Gilan, a province in the north of Iran, to India. He later became a physician in the court of Mughal and raised concerns after smoking to***co became popular among Indian noblemen. He subsequently envisaged a system which allowed smoke to be passed through water in order to be 'purified'. Gilani introduced the ḡalyān after Asad Beg, the ambassador of Bijapur, encouraged Akbar to take up smoking. Following popularity among noblemen, this new device for smoking soon became a status symbol for the Indian aristocracy and gentry. In North India, it is a great tradition followed among Gurjars, Jats, Bishnois, Rajputs etc. However, a quatrain of Ahlī Šīrāzī (d. 1535), a Persian poem, refers to the use of the ḡalyān (Falsafī, II, p. 277; Semsār, 1963, p. 15), thus dating its use at least as early as the time of Shah Ṭahmāsp I. It seems, therefore, that Abu’l-Fatḥ Gīlānī should be credited with the introduction of the ḡalyān, already in use in Persia, to India. The ho**ah pipe is also known as the Marra pipe in the UK, especially in the North East, where it is used for recreational purposes.
