"The History of Tobacco in the Ottoman Empire
James Grehan wrote a very interesting article in the December 2006 issue of the American Historical Review about the changing attitudes towards tobacco smoking in the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period. Essentially as Tobacco spread across from Western Europe towards the Turkish Empire, the authorities both religious and secular reacted with fear and scorn. The religious scholars argued that tobacco like coffee before it was included by analogy in the Koranic prohibition on alcohol. "
More:Westminster Wisdom: The History of Tobacco in the Ottoman Empire
