Tobacco was cultivated and traded in the Romanian Principalities since the seventeenth century, as evidenced by the taxes („tobacco cultivation tax”) and customs duties (“outside tax” or “inside tax”) collected. The amplitude of the smoking custom developed during the Phanariot rule could not be diminished by restrictive methods or religious propaganda. “They smoked at the royal courts, the boyars smoked at home or on their walks, the people smoked in cafes, taverns, on the streets and everywhere.”
“Discourse against tobacco”, the book of the ruler Nicolae Mavrocordat (1680-1730), written at the beginning of the 18th century but published only in 1786, has a strong moralizing content and describes the effects of consuming “broadleaf weeds”, “the icon of eternal hell”, on the human body and psyche. The body becomes weak and has a characteristic odor. The effects on the mind were equally significant. “It weakens the intelligence” and some smokers deprived of “nicotian”, overwhelmed with rage, end up “screaming like wolves”. The radical perspective of the ruler on tobacco did not prevent him from consuming opiate paste, a combination of amber, opium and herbs considered a panacea at the Ottoman High Gate.
During the Phanariot period, rulers and high-rank boyars preferred Turkish tobacco, brought from the cities on the banks of the Danube, while the more “needy” boyars were content with local tobacco. The locally cultivated variety, from the genus Nicotiana Rustica, was gradually replaced by Nicotiana Tabacum, the seed being brought from the Ottoman Empire or from central Europe. The tobacco marketed was often a mixture of varieties made either to emphasize psychotropic characteristics or for purely economic reasons.
The merchants from the Ottoman Empire brought to Bucharest everything necessary to delight and maintain the vice of the population: several varieties of tobacco, pipes, tobacco bags, tobacco jars and cigar cases. The “tobacco” guilds were made up of various ethnic groups, most notably Armenians. At the end of the Phanariot period, in the Mogoșoaia Bridge slum, there were 17 tobacco merchants and 7 Armenian tobacco leaf cutters, craftsmen specialized in cutting sheets into thin threads. The merchant imported the raw material and partially processed it, combining the various varieties of tobacco leaves that he cut and sold. Each wealthy boyar had his own supply of tobacco “dolls” from which an Armenian servant or craftsman chopped the required quantity for 2-3 weeks.
The Romanian boyars adopted the Turkish habit of smoking and enjoying coffee in the morning, on an empty stomach, thus seeking to increase the narcotic effect of tobacco. Daily meals and socializing were complemented by tobacco, wine, and coffee. “Romanian boyars go from one to another to drink coffee, smoke and talk. […] if the smoke came from the precious mamoule (probably the imam), the most complete silence was kept. ”
The ritual was accompanied by smoking “cutlery” (pipes, chibouks, hookahs), objects of oriental luxury that mirrored the hierarchical position of the boyar. The term pipe meant the container in which the tobacco was placed while the chibouk was the tube through which the smoke from the pipe was drawn. In time, the tool with the short tube took the name of the pipe and the one with the long tube was called the chibouk. The boyars preferred the “long chibouk” (1.5-2 m long) or the hookah, which they enjoyed “in the summer on the porch and in the winter at home, lying on the sofa or divan.”
The luxury chibouks were made of jasmine, lemon or rose wood, decorated with gold and silver, with a one-piece or 2-3-piece tube, the latter being easier to transport. The amber mouthpiece was sometimes inlaid with precious stones and at the other end was the imam, made of bone or stone. The accessories were just as important: the tobacco bag (chisea) and the case for the imam, both made of silk embroidered with gold thread or sewn with beads. In addition, there was the brass plate for the ash. Some boyars had collections of chibouks, hookahs and accessories displayed in cabinets or even rooms specially designed for the passion of tobacco.
The coffee and smoking ceremony was an occasion for socializing and political debates, and guests were invited to a room called sacnasiu, a room on the upper floor of the facade of the royal and boyar houses, protruding and closed with glass or shutters, furnished with sofas decorated with carpets and pillows. “[….] the trays with chibouks and hookahs brought by the servants were never ending, and the plate full of Turkish tobacco, placed in the middle of the Turkish table, is always at the disposal of the guests.” The coffee was served in porcelain cups without handles placed in chiseled or filigree gold stands and was accompanied by jams or “small coffee pretzels”. The „ciubuccii” were part of the category of intimate servants of the boyars, who took care of the storage, cleaning, filling, and lighting of chibouks. Depending on the number of guests, the work could be demanding but it also attracted an additional reward. The figurative meaning of the term chibouk, that of tip, is associated with this income.
The picturesque practices associated with tobacco were completed by the servants who accompanied the boyars on their travels through the city, their only duty being to carry the chibouk. If the boyar rode, the “boy with the chibouk” ran after him.
The fashion of European clothing along with the customs of a bygone era is recorded by the painter Miklós Barabas who was in Bucharest in 1832-33. During his visit to a boyar who had adopted the new clothing trends, “he saw about ten boyars smoking long chibouks, each sitting on the floor in the Turkish style, next to a chair, with the topper on their heads and the tailcoats wings rolled on the floor of the room!”
Text: Alexandra Rusu
Photo: Boyar receiving and entertaining guests on the porch while smoking his cigar. Petre E. Mihăescu, Tutunul în trecutul Țării Românești și al lumii întregi, Cartea Românească, București, 1931, pag.111.
Bibliography:
Tudor Dinu, Bucureștiul Fanariot, Humanitas, București, 2020, Vol.III.
Petre E. Mihăescu, Tutunul în trecutul Țării Românești și al lumii întregi, Cartea Românească, București, 1931.
Andrei Oișteanu, Narcotice în cultura română-Istorie, religie și literatură, Polirom, București, 2019.
Text: Alexandra Rusu
Sursa foto: Boier primind și ospătând musafiri în cerdac, în timp ce își fumează trabucul. Petre E. Mihăescu, Tutunul în trecutul Țării Românești și al lumii întregi, Cartea Românească, București, 1931, pag.111.
Bibliografie:
Tudor Dinu, Bucureștiul Fanariot, Humanitas, București, 2020, Vol.III.
Petre E. Mihăescu, Tutunul în trecutul Țării Românești și al lumii întregi, Cartea Românească, București, 1931.
Andrei Oișteanu, Narcotice în cultura română-Istorie, religie și literatură, Polirom, București, 2019.
