Istanbul-Water pipe (nargile) smokers

A hookah (Gujarati હૂકાહ) (Hindustani: हुक़्क़ा (Devanagari, حقّہ (Nastaleeq) huqqah) also known as a waterslide or narghile, is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) Nun for smoking in which the smoke is cooled by morning dew. The tobacco smoked is referred to as Mu'assel, or "Shisha". Multiple references have traced the origin of the hookah to India. According to Cyril Elgood (pp. 41, 110), who does not mention his source, it was Abu’l-Fatḥ Gīlānī (d. 1588), a physician at the Indian court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, who “first passed the smoke of tobacco through a small bowl of water to purify and cool the smoke and thus invented the hubble-bubble or hookah.” Nevertheless, a quatrain of Ahlī Šīrāzī (d. 1535) refers to the use of the ḡalyān (Falsafī, II, p. 277; Semsār, 1963, p. 15). Smoking the hookah has gained popularity outside of its native region, especially in the Middle East, and is gaining popularity in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Turkey, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

As of 2010, the population of Turkey is estimated to be 73.7 million with a growth rate of 1.21% per annum (2009 figure). The population is relatively young with 26.6% falling in the 0-14 age bracket. According to the OECD/World Bank population statistics in Turkey the population growth from 1990 to 2008 was 16 million and 29 %.