(Harris's _Coll._, fol. vol.
ii. pp. 925. and 926.)
The story told of Amurath IV. punishing a Turk for smoking seems to be a
mistake, since Amurath only began to reign 1622; whereas Sandys relates
the same story of a certain Morad Bassa, probably Murat III., who began
to reign {155} 1576, and ended 1594. If this be the case, the Turks were
smokers before tobacco was known in England.--In Persia smoking was
prohibited by Shah Abbas. There were two princes of this name. The first
began his reign 1585 A.D., died 1628: the second began 1641, died 1666.
The proclamation against smoking was probably issued by the first, since
(as before mentioned) in 1634 Olearius found the custom firmly
established. If so, the Persians must have been early smokers. Smoking
seems to have obtained at a very remote period among several nations of
antiquity. Dr. Clarke quotes Plutarch on Rivers to show that the
Thracians were in the habit of intoxicating themselves with smoke, which
he supposes to have been tobacco. The _Quarterly Review_ is opposed to
this.
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