A shisha pipe is a water pipe designed to smoke flavored tobacco by drawing it through a water-filled base, which cools and moistens the smoke before you inhale it. Also called a hookah, narghile, or waterpipe, it’s a centuries-old device that remains popular worldwide, particularly in cafes and social settings. The experience is distinctly different from cigarette smoking: sessions typically last 45 minutes to an hour, the smoke carries fruit or mint flavors, and the ritual of preparing and sharing the pipe is central to its appeal.
How a Shisha Pipe Is Built
A shisha pipe has five main parts, each serving a specific role in turning flavored tobacco into smooth, cooled smoke.
- Bowl: A small clay, ceramic, or stone cup that sits at the very top and holds the flavored tobacco (called shisha or moassel).
- Tray: A metal plate that sits just below the bowl, catching falling ash and stray charcoal to keep the session clean.
- Stem: The central column, usually metal or stainless steel, that connects the bowl to the water base. Smoke travels down through this tube.
- Base: A large glass or ceramic vessel filled with water. The bottom of the stem is submerged in this water, so smoke must bubble through it before reaching you.
- Hose: A flexible tube with a mouthpiece that connects to the stem. When you draw on it, suction pulls air through the entire system.
How the Smoke Reaches You
Charcoal is lit and placed on a piece of foil or a metal screen covering the bowl. The charcoal doesn’t touch the tobacco directly. Instead, it radiates heat downward, warming the shisha to around 190°C. At that temperature, the tobacco doesn’t combust the way a cigarette does. It vaporizes, releasing a cloud made primarily of water vapor, glycerol, flavoring compounds, and nicotine.
When you inhale through the hose, suction pulls heated air down through the bowl, across the tobacco, and into the stem. The smoke travels down the stem and enters the water in the base, where it bubbles up through the liquid. This step cools the smoke significantly and traps some ash particles, which is why the inhale feels smoother and less harsh than a cigarette. The cooled smoke then rises into the air chamber above the water line and travels through the hose to your mouth.
What Shisha Tobacco Contains
Shisha tobacco is not just loose leaf. It’s a wet, sticky mixture that typically contains 15% to 25% actual tobacco. The rest is molasses or honey, glycerin (which produces the thick clouds), and flavoring. Popular flavors include double apple, mint, grape, watermelon, and blueberry, though the variety is enormous.
Herbal shisha replaces the tobacco leaf with sugarcane fiber or tea leaves, eliminating nicotine from the mix. The molasses, glycerin, and flavorings remain the same, so the smoking experience feels similar, though the nicotine buzz is absent.
Charcoal Types and Their Differences
The charcoal you use affects both flavor and what you inhale. Natural charcoal, usually made from compressed coconut shell, burns cleanly and produces heat without adding noticeable taste. It requires a coil burner or gas stove to light, which takes about 10 minutes.
Quick-light charcoal discs are coated with a chemical accelerant so you can ignite them with a standard lighter. They’re more convenient but often leave a chemical aftertaste that interferes with the shisha flavor. Many experienced users avoid them for this reason, and the accelerant adds compounds to the smoke that natural charcoal doesn’t produce.
Health Risks Worth Understanding
The smoothness of shisha smoke creates a perception that it’s safer than cigarettes. Research tells a different story. A 45-minute shisha session exposes you to roughly 48.6 liters of total smoke volume, compared to about 1 liter from a single cigarette. That’s nearly 50 times the amount of smoke. During that same session, a typical smoker takes around 72 puffs, compared to about 15 for a cigarette, and each puff is far larger in volume.
The water does filter out some ash and particulate matter, but it doesn’t meaningfully remove nicotine, carbon monoxide, or cancer-causing chemicals. For every 100 puffs of hookah smoke, research has measured roughly 2.25 mg of nicotine and 242 mg of tar, along with higher levels of arsenic, chromium, and lead compared to a single cigarette. Carbon monoxide exposure is a particular concern because charcoal combustion is a major source of it, and sessions last far longer than the few minutes it takes to smoke a cigarette.
Indoor air quality in hookah lounges reflects this. A study of hookah bars in New York City measured average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels of nearly 1,180 micrograms per cubic meter. For context, the World Health Organization considers 15 micrograms per cubic meter the upper limit for healthy 24-hour exposure. Even if you’re not smoking, sitting in a hookah lounge exposes you to significant secondhand smoke.
Infection Risks From Sharing
Shisha is inherently social, and most sessions involve passing the hose between friends. This creates a direct route for transmitting respiratory and gut-related infections through saliva. The hose, stem, and even the water in the base can harbor bacteria and viruses. Samples collected from hookah cafe equipment in Iran identified staphylococci, Streptococcus, Neisseria, and E. coli on both disposable and fixed mouthpieces.
The risks go beyond minor infections. One study found that people who shared a hookah communally were 4.1 times more likely to be infected with Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium responsible for stomach ulcers, compared to non-smokers. Sharing a pipe with someone who has pulmonary tuberculosis has also been linked to transmission of TB. Disposable plastic mouthpiece tips reduce but don’t eliminate these risks, since the shared hose and water still act as reservoirs.
Where Shisha Comes From
The water pipe dates to at least the 16th century. Its invention is most commonly attributed to Abul-Fath Gilani, an Iranian physician working in the Mughal court in India. Gilani was concerned about the health effects of tobacco smoking among Indian noblemen and designed a system to pass smoke through water, believing it would purify the smoke. Some historical evidence suggests water pipes may have existed in Persia even earlier, with a Persian poet referencing one as far back as the 1530s, possibly for smoking cannabis rather than tobacco.
From India, the device spread to Persia, where its design evolved into something closer to the modern form. By the mid-1600s, water pipe use had become widespread across the Persian and Ottoman empires. The wealthy commissioned pipes made of gold and silver, and the hookah became a symbol of social status. It entered Turkish and Balkan culture in the 17th century with the same prestige. Glass bases were sometimes imported from Venice because local glassmaking couldn’t match the quality. Today’s shisha pipes follow the same fundamental design, with modern materials like silicone hoses and heat management devices being the primary updates.