A hookah (Hindustani: हुक़्क़ा (huqqā) (Devanagari), حقّہ (Nastaleeq), IPA: [ˈɦʊqːa]; also see other names),^[1][2] also known as the qalyān (Persian: قلیان‎) or shisha, is a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco, flavored tobacco (often Mu‘assel), or sometimes cannabis, hashish, and in the past opium. The smoke is passed through a water basin—often glass-based—before inhalation.^[3][4][5][6]

The health risks of smoking through a hookah include exposure to toxic chemicals that are not filtered out by the water^[7] and risk of infectious disease when hookahs are shared.