in IRAN
Cultivation. Although initially tobacco was imported from Surat in India and from Indonesia by the Dutch and English, respectively, tobacco was soon later also cultivated in Persia. In 1617, Shah ʿAbbās already referred to Hamadan tobacco. In 1637, Olearius (1599-1671), noted its cultivation in Baghdad, Kurdistan and Gilān. Only thirty years later, Chardin (1643-1713) wrote that tobacco grew everywhere in Persia, but tobacco from Šuštar, Behbahān, Hamadan, and southern Fārs was particularly well-known (III, p. 301; see also Olearius, p. 597).
By the end of the 19th century, three main types of tobacco were grown in Persia: (i) Tambāku (Nicotiana persica Lindl.), or pounded tobacco, smoked in the water pipe and grown allover the country, but more particularly in the south; (ii) Tutun-e čopoq (Nicotiana rustica) pipe tobacco, smoked in a čopoq and sebilu (short one-piece earthenware pipe), cultivated in the northwest of Persia, and sold as a clear yellow coarse powder. (iii) Tutun-e sigār (Nicotiana rustica) or cigarette tobacco, introduced in 1876 and cultivated in Gilān and Māzandarān. Cigarette paper was called kāḡaḏ-e sigār or papirus, a term borrowed from the Russian. Sometimes, this tobacco was also smoked in the sebilu
For example, per capita consumption was only slightly more than 3 batmans or 1.19 kg, which was in harmony with the consumption in Turkey and Egypt at that time (For the 20th century see also DOḴĀNIYĀT).
History of Tobacco Timeline
6,000 BC Native Americans first start cultivating the tobacco plant.
Circa 1 BC Indigenous American tribes start smoking tobacco in religious ceremonies and for medicinal purposes.
1492 Christopher Columbus first encounters dried tobacco leaves. They were given to him as a gift by the American Indians.
1492 Tobacco plant and smoking introduced to Europeans.
1531 Europeans start cultivation of the tobacco plant in Central America.
1558 First attempt at tobacco cultivation in Europe fail.
1571 European doctors start publishing works on healthy properties of the tobacco plant, claiming it
1600 Tobacco used as cash-crop – a monetary standard that lasts twice as long as the gold standard.
1602 King James I condemns tobacco in his treatise A Counterblast to Tobacco.
1614 Tobacco shops open across Britain, selling the Virginia blend tobacco.
1624 Popes ban use of tobacco in holy places, considering sneezing (snuff) too close to sexual pleasures.
1633 Turkey introduces a death penalty for smoking but it doesn’t stay in effect for long and is lifted in 1647.
1650 Tobacco arrives in Africa – European settlers grow it and use it as a currency.
1700 African slaves are first forced to work on tobacco plantations, years before they become a workforce in the cotton fields.
1730 First American tobacco companies open their doors in Virginia.
1753 Tobacco genus named by a Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus – nicotiana rustica and nicotiana tabacum named for the first time.
1791 British doctors find that snuff leads to increased risk of nose cancer.
1794 First American tobacco tax.
1826 Nicotine isolated for the first time.
1847 Philip Morris opens their first shop in Great Britain, selling hand-rolled Turkish cigarettes.
1961 First American cigarette factory produces 20 million cigarettes.
1880 Bonsack develops the first cigarette-rolling machine.
1890 American Tobacco Company opens its doors.
1990 4 billion cigarettes are sold this year and manufacture is on the rise.
1902 Philip Morris starts selling cigarettes in the US – one of the brands offered is Marlboro.
1912 First reported connection between smoking and lung cancer.
1918 An entire generation of young men returns from war addicted to cigarettes.
1924 Over 70 billion of cigarettes are sold in the US.
1925 Philip Morris starts marketing to women, tripling the number of female smokers in just 10 years.
1947 Lorillard chemist admits that there is enough evidence that smoking can cause cancer.
1950 50% of a cigarette now consists of the cigarette filter tip.
1967 Surgeon General definitively links smoking to lung cancer and presents evidence that it is causing heart problems.
1970 Tobacco manufacturers legally obliged to print a warning on the labels that smoking is a health hazard.
1970 – 1990 Tobacco companies faced with a series of lawsuits. Courts limit their advertising and marketing.
1992 Nicotine patch is introduced – in the following years more cessation products will start being developed.
1996 Researchers find conclusive evidence that tobacco damages a cancer-suppressor gene.
1997 Liggett Tobacco Company issues a statement acknowledging that tobacco causes cancer and carries a considerable health risk.
1997 Tobacco companies slammed with major lawsuits – ordered to spend billions of dollar on anti-smoking campaigns over the next 25 years predominantly focused on educating the young on dangers of smoking.
1997 For the first time in history a tobacco company CEO admits on trial that cigarettes and related tobacco products cause cancer. His name was Bennett Lebow.
1990 – 2000 Bans on public smoking come into effect in most states in America, as well as in other countries in the world.
