2-731-178 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Hookah Bowl, 1700s. The appreciation of poetic allusions while enjoying a hookah was part of the culture of pleasure at courtly gatherings throughout Mughal India. Around the top of this hookah bowl are incised the opening two lines from the Khamsa (Quintet) of the celebrated Persian poet Nizami (1141-1209). The four verses incised around the body of the bowl are excerpts from the poetically embellished definition of the word hoqqa in an Arabic dictionary compiled in the 1700s. The verses personify the hookah as a long-suffering servant who does not protest even when burning embers are placed on his head.