An Early-Modern Counseling Initiative Against Tobacco Addiction: Duhan Treatises

Abstract

Spreading rapidly among the peoples of Eurasia after the discovery of America, tobacco entered the Ottoman Empire at about the same time. This brought the conservative attitude of the state and society towards tobacco and tobacco consumers. In this age, when people grasped the universe in its religious integrity, tobacco users were also accused of religion for using an innovation that was not present in human life before. This article is specifically about tobacco treatises written in the Ottoman Empire. The main view that I will argue in the article is that tobacco treatises are based on shaping people's lives and guiding them. The vast majority of treatises state that tobacco is religiously forbidden and emphasize its negative aspects on health and home economics. For this reason, while the main factors in proving the ideas are thoughts on the harms of tobacco in social and individual terms, the tools used are primarily the Qur'an and hadiths. While the aim is human health, the preservation of traditions and the prevention of waste, it is the religious debates that seem to be at the forefront. However, neither these treatises nor the intervention of the states could stop the spread of tobacco. A rather subjective reasoning was made in the works, and therefore the result of convincing the other side rarely took place. Excessive expressions, on the other hand, basically have content that can lead people to this because of the insulting style they have, instead of warning them and directing them to stay away from tobacco. This article is intended to be a reading of all these debates and cultural adaptation procedure.

Spreading rapidly among the peoples of Eurasia after the discovery of America, tobacco entered the Ottoman Empire at about the same time. This brought the conservative attitude of the state and society towards tobacco and tobacco consumers. In this age, when people grasped the universe in its religious integrity, tobacco users were also accused of religion for using an innovation that was not present in human life before. This article is specifically about tobacco treatises written in the Ottoman Empire. The main view that I will argue in the article is that tobacco treatises are based on shaping people's lives and guiding them. The vast majority of treatises state that tobacco is religiously forbidden and emphasize its negative aspects on health and home economics. For this reason, while the main factors in proving the ideas are thoughts on the harms of tobacco in social and individual terms, the tools used are primarily the Qur'an and hadiths. While the aim is human health, the preservation of traditions and the prevention of waste, it is the religious debates that seem to be at the forefront. However, neither these treatises nor the intervention of the states could stop the spread of tobacco. A rather subjective reasoning was made in the works, and therefore the result of convincing the other side rarely took place. Excessive expressions, on the other hand, basically have content that can lead people to this because of the insulting style they have, instead of warning them and directing them to stay away from tobacco. This article is intended to be a reading of all these debates and cultural adaptation procedure.