Turkish Hash

Turkish Hash is named for a country where, in Sensi Seeds’ words, hashish use was culturally accepted for many centuries. As a form, hash is the plant’s resin glands, the trichomes, gathered and pressed into one piece; kief is the same resin left loose.

Sufi rituals and coffee houses

Sensi Seeds says Sufi Muslims worked cannabis into their rituals, while coffee houses throughout Turkey let customers use it on site. It also describes hemp as a widely grown Turkish crop with many uses.

Turkey among Europe’s hashish sources, around 1900

Wikipedia’s Hashish article names Turkey as one of the places that, around 1900, supplied most of the hashish sold in Europe. The others it lists are Lebanon, Nepal, Syria, Greece, Afghanistan and India, with Kashmir singled out.

Hookah smokers who left Turkey

The 1919-21 war forced about 2.5 million Greek refugees out of Turkey, the same article says, and many of them had been habitual hashish smokers, using hookah-style waterpipes called arghilethes. In Greece they opened the hashish dens known as tekethes, a subculture the article connects with rembetika music.

Eaten before it was smoked

Until the 1500s hashish was mostly eaten across the Muslim world, the Hashish article says, since smoking became widespread in the Old World only once tobacco arrived. Eating changes the timing: the liver processes eaten THC, which means a slower start and a longer finish than smoking. A footnote in the same article cites Linschoten’s East Indies travel book (English translation, 1598), where “bangue” is much used in Turkey and Egypt and comes in three kinds with three names. A note by an 1885 editor, printed with the quoted passage, ties the Egyptian name “Assis” to the Arabic word hashish.

Strength before habit

Health Canada’s list of extracts with a heavy THC load names hash together with kief, wax and shatter; its suggestion for beginners is to skip the whole list. Our guide to how hash is made explains the form.