Against Smoking

This slim book is a veritable introduction to the history of addiction in early modern Islam. Although ostensibly an edition of a fatwa by one scholar, the book actually discusses most kinds of addiction (hashish, opium, coffee) and places the introduction of smoking in this spectrum. The Foreword by Mohammad Akram Nadwi is actually itself full of information on the history of smoking in the Islamic world, with heavy footnotes on the literature on the three camps of opinions on the matter: the ones who forbade it, the one who allowed it, and the one who saw it as makruh, or detestable. The book is also illustrated with many images from historical works that depicts the Ottoman Empire cafes, smokers and related material of the addiction history in Muslim lands. The book is actually packed with material, analysis, and references to studies that makes it one of the best manuals on the social history of addiction in early modern Ottoman Empire.