page_title: Muʽassel
section_title: Arab world
hierarchical_section_title: Muʽassel / Culture / Middle East / Arab world
caption_attribution_description: Photograph,1920,s of a coffee house in Deir ez-Zor on the Euphrates River in Syria. A bedouin is seen smoking his water-pipe, called locally Narghile,in an austere furnished coffee house.
context_page_description: Muʽassel, or maassel, is a syrupy tobacco mix containing molasses, vegetable glycerol and various flavourings which is smoked in a hookah, a type of waterpipe. It is also known as "shisha" in Canada, USA, Brazil, Europe and the Middle East.
  Argilah or Argileh, and shisha or sheesha, is the common term for the hookah itself in the Arab world.
context_section_description: In many places in the Arab world, the smoking of shisha is a part of traditional culture, and is considered a social custom. Social smoking is typically done with the use of a hookah with a single hose which is passed around the group or double hose, but some hookahs can employ up to four hoses. When the smoker is finished, the hose is either placed back on the table, signifying that it is available, or is handed directly to the next user.  Social convention dictates that the mouthpiece and hose should be folded back on itself in such a way that the mouthpiece is not pointing at the recipient. Disposable mouth tips are sometimes used in cafes.
  Many cafés in the Middle East offer hookah. Cafés are widespread and are common social gathering places (akin to public houses in Britain). Some expatriate residents arriving in the Middle East frequent hookah cafés in lieu of pubs in the region, especially where prohibition is in place and alcohol is not served.
caption: Bedouin smoking a hookah, locally called nargileh, in a coffeehouse in Deir ez-Zor, on the Euphrates, 1920s
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