Ottoman Smoking Pipes from Malazgirt, Türkiye (Malazgirt Savaş Alanının Tespiti, Tarihi ve Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi)
The region north of Lake Van in Türkiye has received relatively little archaeological attention for the Islamic period, with the notable exception of Malazgirt—the site of the pivotal Battle of Manzikert in the 11th century (Dölek & Çevik, 2023; Dölek et al., 2024). Since 2020, archaeological surveys and excavations have been undertaken in Malazgirt and its surrounding area under the direction of Professor Adnan Çevik of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University. Among the most significant discoveries are forty Ottoman smoking pipes recovered from three sites: Han ve Çevresi, İç Kale ve Surlar, and Ziyaret Tepe. The artifacts presented in this paper constitute the first published assemblage of Ottoman pipes from the northern Lake Van region, thus filling a major gap in the archaeology of Ottoman material culture in Eastern Anatolia.
In the past decade, the study of tobacco pipes in Upper and Northern Mesopotamia, covering northern Iraq and eastern Türkiye, has advanced considerably. Yet, much of this scholarship has focused on northern Iraq, at sites such as Shanidar, Khirbet-Hatara, Khirbet-Deir Situn, and the Mosul Dam area (Jarjis & Demirji, 1987; Matney, 1997; Simpson, 2013; Guedeau, 2019), where a typology of pipes produced and used locally has been established. Southeastern Türkiye has also attracted sustained attention, particularly with regard to fortifications and castles at Bitlis, Başur, and Cizre (Pektaş, 2006; Ayhan, 2010; Saldırgan, 2019). The Malazgirt assemblage demonstrates close parallels with these southeastern contexts, but its location in the northern Lake Van basin highlights a significant extension of this distribution area. In this sense, Malazgirt provides the missing link between well-studied Mesopotamian and southeastern Anatolian contexts, and underscores the importance of eastern Anatolia as an active participant in the wider networks of Ottoman pipe production and use.
Han ve Çevresi (“Han and Surroundings”) and İç Kale ve Surlar (“Inner Castle and Walls”) are both located within the city of Malazgirt, while Ziyaret Tepe is a rural site 13 kilometers away, dominating the plains of Malazgirt and Patnos. The excavations yielded twenty-eight pipes from Han ve Çevresi, eleven from İç Kale ve Surlar, and one from Ziyaret Tepe. Given their geographical proximity and the relatively limited number of pipes found at each location, the artifacts from all three sites are examined collectively in this study.

Fig.01 – Map of Malazgirt (İç Kale ve Surlar, Han ve Çevresi) and Ziyaret Tepe (Nolwenn Guedeau, 2025)
Ottoman smoking pipes are notable for their unique forms and functions, distinct from European pipes of the same period. Typically consisting of a bowl made from materials such as clay (as in the assemblage under study here), stone, metal, wood, or occasionally bone, these pipes were produced using molds, sometimes burnished, and often decorated with motifs applied through rouletting, incising, or impressing. Occasionally, a slip was applied to enhance their appearance. The pipe bowls have three components: the shank end, the keel, and the bowl itself. A wooden stem generally 20 to 40 centimeters long — rarely found in archaeological contexts — was inserted into the shank end. A mouthpiece, often made from amber or precious stones, was attached at the stem’s end, though such elements are seldom found in excavations.
Tobacco consumption began in America around the 5th millennium BCE. Introduced in Europe in the late 16th century, tobacco soon reached the Ottoman Empire (De Vincenz, 2016). It rapidly became widely consumed across all levels of Ottoman society — urban and rural, among various socioeconomic strata, including men, women, and even children. By the early 17th century, tobacco cultivation and pipe production were well established throughout the empire. Smoking pipes thus became widespread artifacts of tobacco consumption — a practice that persisted until World War I, when cigarettes began to replace pipes as the preferred method of smoking.
Regional production
- Poppy with bases
These pipes are characterized by their distinctive shape, featuring a varying-length base, a filter, no shank end, and an elongated furnace. They are made from grey to black clay with white and orange inclusions, and a black slip that can either be glossy or matte. These pipes date back to the mid-18th and 19th centuries and have primarily been discovered in northern Iraq and southeastern Türkiye (Simpson, 2013, 262). Notably, there are variations in their shapes and decorations, indicating that they likely did not originate from the same workshops. The shape of the furnace can range from flattened to more rounded, and the shape of the bases can vary between a thick disc and a triangular form. Decorations can either be incised, forming a grid-like pattern, or involve the use of wheels to create small squares. Pipes that can be fully identified as poppy with bases make up 26% of the corpus.
The presence of a filter is quite rare in pipes from Western Asia. The exact reason for this type of equipment remains somewhat unclear. Matney hypothesized that the pipes were used for smoking opium, thus resembling somewhat the form of a hookah (Matney, 1997). The lower part, under the filter, could have been used to hold water to soften the consumption. However, the pipes used for opium consumption, which can be seen in photos of Asian smokers or in museums, are quite different (Zheng, 2005). The amount of opium that could be put into the poppy would be far too much. Asian pipes have a much smaller bowl, as is the case with hashish pipes. Tonghini suggests a need to separate the charcoal from the tobacco ‘as commonly occurs in water-pipes’ (Tonghini, 2023, 229). Tobacco was not frequently smoked in hookahs, but tombak was used instead. Tombak is a resin mixing fruit and a little tobacco. The charcoal was not separated from the tombak but placed on top. Thus, there is no certainty, but as Tonghini says, it indicates a particular use of the object.

Fig.02 – Poppy with base (HNC-23-P-16-00, IKS-22-P-03-00 and IKS-22-P-01-00, Photo Nolwenn Guedeau, 2024)
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Poppy without base
These pipes share the same plastic characteristics as the poppy-shaped ones with a base. However, they have no base but a shank end. There is a relatively higher proportion of these pipes, which distinguishes them from Muqable, Bassetki, and the East Habur region, in northern Iraq (Guedeau, 2019). It is likely that they date from the same period as the poppy with base, specifically the mid-18th to 19th centuries. These pipes are predominantly found in Iraqi Kurdistan and southeastern Türkiye. The shapes of these pipes are somewhat more standardized, typically featuring a single globular, flared shank end. However, on a regional scale, other shapes have been identified, though they exhibit less diversity compared to the flat shape of the poppy with base. This suggests that fewer workshops may have been involved in producing this type of pipe, but also that they were used less. Although the chronology is not yet clear, it is not impossible that these pipes are a variation of pipes with stems (or vice versa). An idea, which currently has no reliable archaeological evidence, would be that stemless pipes were a sort of transitional form between pipes traditionally produced with a long shank end. Then, quickly, a development of the form with a stem and without a shank end emerged. Both types could have been used together for a while before stemless pipes were abandoned to make way for the flourishing of pipes with stems. However, more in-depth studies on reliable and precise chronologies should be carried out potentially to refute or confirm this hypothesis. Fragments identified as poppy without base constitute 10% of the overall corpus.

Fig.03 – Poppy without base (HNC-23-P-14-01 and IKS-22-P-08-00, Photo Nolwenn Guedeau, 2024)
Unknown origin
Some pipes have no comparison: either they have never been published before or they correspond to types too common to be able to define their origin. They are probably dated between the 17th and 20th centuries. They may have been produced regionally or in any part of the Ottoman Empire. These pipes are made of beige-gray or pinkish clay. A slip is not always present but can vary from red to black depending on the models. These pipes make up 20% of the corpus.

Fig.04 – Pipes of unknown origin (HNC-23-P-06-01 and HNC-23-P-13-01, Photo Nolwenn Guedeau, 2024)
Discussion and conclusion
The function of the filters in the poppy-shaped pipes with bases remains a matter of debate. The design of these pipes does not align with known Asian opium pipes, as they have larger bowls, and there is an absence of metal components (to vaporize opium rather than burn it directly). An alternative hypothesis is that the filters were designed to cool the smoke or filter out impurities, enhancing the smoking experience. The inclusion of a filter could signify a regional adaptation to harsher local tobacco varieties or reflect specific cultural preferences within the Malazgirt community.
The hypothesis that stemless pipes represent a transitional form between traditional long-shank pipes and stemmed pipes merits further exploration. Examination of the stratigraphic context in which these pipes were found is essential and is already suggesting that stemless pipes are more prevalent in earlier layers, while stemmed pipes appear more frequently in later strata. Comparative studies from neighboring regions reveal similar patterns. However, in southeastern Türkiye, both stemless and stemmed pipes have been found in contexts dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, indicating a transitional period where both types were in use (Ayhan, 2010, Saldırgan, 2019). This supports the notion that the shift in pipe designs was gradual rather than abrupt, possibly influenced by regional trends and user preferences.
There is little variety in the types of pipes consumed at these three sites, which are common to sites in southeastern Türkiye and northern Iraq but different from patterns observed in other regions of the Ottoman Empire. This first published corpus of pipes from the northern Lake Van region is particularly significant when examining its typology. A large number of poppy-type pipes were identified, previously known only in southeastern Türkiye and northern Iraq. This discovery allows for a redefinition of the consumption and likely production zones of this specific type of pipe. It also highlights commercial and cultural exchanges over a vast area of approximately 180,000 km².
Notably, the absence of Tophane pipes, produced in the major workshops of Istanbul, is significant. This absence, or at least the rarity of such pipes in northern Iraq and the Malazgirt region, reflects decentralized exchange networks within the Ottoman Empire. Pipes circulated within relatively restricted yet expansive territories, with few imported pipes being used in these regions. This suggests that local production satisfied the demand, reducing reliance on goods from the imperial center.
Considering the limited number of pipes from the three sites examined and the lack of other examples from the northern Lake Van region, further research in this area is essential. Continued archaeological investigations and comparative studies will help to better understand the consumption patterns and production of poppy-head pipes within the Ottoman Empire. This will clarify the function of these pipes and shed light on regional smoking practices during this period.
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About the Author :
After obtaining a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in oriental archaeology at the University of Poitiers, Nolwenn Guedeau is now a research associate at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies. She is a doctoral student under the joint supervision of the University of Bonn (Germany) and the University of Aix-Marseille. Her doctoral research in Ottoman archaeology, under the supervision of Carla Jaimes Betancourt (Kulturwissenschaft) and Véronique François (LA3M), focuses on the tobacco industry and tobacco consumption in the Ottoman Empire. She is notably engaged as an archaeologist and ceramologist in Iraqi Kurdistan and Saudi Arabia.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Nolwenn Guedeau (3 décembre 2025). Ottoman Smoking Pipes from Malazgirt, Türkiye (Malazgirt Savaş Alanının Tespiti, Tarihi ve Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi). Les carnets de l’Ifpo. Consulté le 18 janvier 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/159xo