Made in Arabic
hookah
الحُقّة
A cylindrical box with a lid, in the copper-toned lustreware of Syria, with a row of partridges on the lid and a band of kufic script around it: «Trust in God suffices; perseverance is glory; whoever is patient prevails». Arabic ḥuqqa is just such a vessel, a small box or jar; Persian and then Urdu used it for the water vessel of the pipe, and English took it as hookah.
- Instrument
- an inscribed lustre-painted lidded box, Syria, late 11th–early 12th century
- Written on it in Arabic
- Around its body in kufic: «Trust [in God] suffices. Perseverance becomes glory. [He] who is patient possesses strength» (The Met's reading).
The path between languagesḥuqqa → hookah
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ملكٌ عامّ
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