Attitudes towards smoking were once more relaxed. When this photograph was taken by Jack Burlot in Abu Dhabi in 1974, the world still lit up in offices, shops, restaurants and even airplanes. The form of smoking known in these parts as shisha was never much practised in mid-air (except perhaps on flying carpets), but it has a much older pedigree.
As to its origins and even name, well, that depends on who you ask. The most generally accepted timeline is that it was invented in India about six centuries ago and then migrated to the Arab world via Persia.
Sometimes called a hookah or a narghile, the name shisha seems to come from the other side of the Arabian Gulf, where “shisheh” is the Persian name for glass.
Although the base here is made of clay, the principle and spirit of shisha is the same; a communal and convivial experience, shared with tea and friends, when even a corporal in the Abu Dhabi Police is happy to be snapped by a passing foreigner.
* James Langton
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