Page "Hookah" Paragraph 24

The exact date of the first use of ḡalyān in Persia is not known.

According to Cyril Elgood ( pp. 41, 110 ), who does not mention his source, it was Abul-Fatḥ Gilani ( d. 1588 ), a Persian physician at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar I, who " first passed the smoke of tobacco through a small bowl of water to purify and cool the smoke and thus invented the hubble-bubble or hookah.

" However, a quatrain of Ahli Shirazi ( d. 1535 ) 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 Tahmasp I ( 1524 – 76 ).

It seems, therefore, that Abul-Fath Gilani should be credited with the introduction of the ḡalyān, already in use in Persia, to India.