
Hookah is a single or multi-stemmed, often glass-based, water pipe device for smoking; originating in India,[1][2] it gained fame in the Arab World when it traveled from Persia to Arabia. A hookah operates by water-filtration and indirect heat. It can be used for smoking many substances, such as herbal fruits and tobacco.
Depending on locality, hookahs are known as other names, such as a shisha/sheesha, water pipe, nargeela/nargile/narghile/nargileh/narguilé, argeela/arghileh/arguilé, okka, qalyan/kalyan/ghalyan/
ghelyoon or gewat suckre. Many of these names are of Arab, Indian, Turkish, Uzbek, or Persian origin. Narghile is from the Persian word nārgil or "coconut", and in Sanskrit nārikela and it was made out of coconut shells.[3] Shisha is from the Persian word shishe literally translated as glass and not bottle), and is primarily used for water pipes in Egypt and the Arab countries of the Gulf (such as Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia).
ookah itself may stem from Arabic uqqa, meaning small box, pot, or jar. Both names refer to the original methods of constructing the smoke/water chamber part of the hookah.