The story of Marpuçmaker Ihsan Usta goes back a long time. At 70 years of age he's one of the oldest habitants of the Grand Bazaar and he says he he comes to work at 10 a.m. and leaves at 6 p.m. He says that he will carry on working as long as he is able.
There is a Turkish song which claims that the marpuç of a nargile is made of silver but according to marpuç maker İhsan Usta this is a grave mistake. He claims that a good marpuç can only be made of fine leather. "The

çraft of marpuç making came from Iran. Everybody thinks it comes from Arabia but on the contrary Arabs took it from the Persians. Then it came over to the Ottoman Empire and it became very popular, even taking its place in the palace." says İhsan usta "Because there wasn't any tobbaco the Ottomans sniffed snuff: Since Murat IV forbid tobbaco that was the only thing people could do. Although everybody knows this event, İhsan usta seems to love to tell this story to everybody: "Murat IV. used to smell chimneys and if he smelt tobacco he used to chop the heads of the people in tha house."
"When Murat IV died at the age of 27 and tobacco reentered the market, nargile tobacco from İran entered the Ottoman markets. This eventually led to widespread usage of the hubbly bubbly or the nargile. Always enjoying a life of leisure the Turks loved the nargile. As a result the nargile and marpuç art developed so much in the Ottoman Empire that Syria and Arabia started to import marpuç from us. "
But also known as "the pleasure of life" by the Ottomans, what does the nargile and it's marpuç mean to folk. And what kind of a thing is it?
The stem or the marpuç is made of leather. Marpuç is not the mouthpiece however: It's the name of the pipe that joins the mouthpiece from the body. "Everybody thinks it's the mouthpiece but it's not, the leather part is the marpuç." says İhsan usta. When smoking the waterpipe, he explains, the marpuç is the third filter; thus it's an element that takes away the poison of the tobacco.
A marpuç should be thrown away after 6 months of use. İhsan usta points out that others who have tried to make marpuç out of materials other than have always failed. For almost a hundred years many ways have seen tried in the making of the marpuç. They've tried plastic and failed, they've tried paper and failed again. "Plastick and raw leather are not the same things. Raw leather inhales the air. When the pipe is leather it filters better." Says Ihsan usta. If you use a Marpuç continuously for six months it fills with tar. Actually it should be used for only three months but most use it up to six months.
The marpuç sold a lot when Arabia was a part of the Ottoman Empire. For this reason, at the lower quarters of the Grand Bazaar there used to be 40 marpuç shops. "My father's father was the master of 40 marpuç makers. His name was Çilli (freckled) Mustafa. He was also in charge of fire brigade at the Flower Market. At the time of Abdülhamit he formed a marpuç company with a man called Zülküf. In those days nargile was exported to Arabia. Then

World War II came and most of the apprentices died at Dardanelles; thus most of the shops had to close down. Being an object of leisure and not a necessity most craftsmen couldn't do good bussines nargile and marpuç for that reason.In those years my father became a shoemaker. I've remember my father as a shoemaker. My father was a shoe 'doctor': He used to make shoes for disabled feet.
He used to know a lot about leather. Famous people used to buy their shoes from my father. They used to call him

"Mazlum Usta" and his customers would take him to the tannery and make him choose the leather. At time it was said that my father was a marpuç maker but i didn' know what it was. We used to live one week on sale of only a pair of shoes that my father made; he use to earn a lot of money. Once he was sitting in front of his shop he saw a man carrying ten old marpuçs. "Is there anybody who can repair these?" he had asked. My father said "Let me have a look." He took them and gave a close look look and he said: "İ'll do it. Come back in a week." The year was 1948; so my father had started marpuç making again.
When he restarted marpuç making, my father immediately formed a team. We were making shoes and marpuç at the same time. People were ordering both. The Syrian border was closed then. but southern cities were buying their marpuçs from us. It's my father who started todays Emirgan, a resort on Bosphorus famous for its nargile smoking and tea drinking. I remember their truck waiting for two days to take away our marpuçs; They wanted only my fathers marpuç. They used to queue for for them. Because of this he started to be a bit of a liar. He used to promise even though he knew he couldn't deliver on time. For this reason I used to get realy cross with him. When my father died the shop was sold. So I opened a little shop here and tried to hire hands but they want a lot of money. Now they've all left and got their own bussinesses and they're billioners.
The skill is not in just making the just making marpuç. You have to know where exactly to put the leather and albo to make it from the right leather. Others today can't make a marpuç fot the real nargile because they don't know leather. They use paper thin leathers. They think they know the art. The most important thing is to know how to shave the leather. Anyway to cut it shortly: I had given up the work for three years but my present partner called me back. So I've started making marpuç again. We work here in this small place. We sell them for 10 or 12 million each. The length of the marpuç is determined by the size of the sheeps skin. The marpuç is molded and it's wired up from inside. The mold is important. It must not be damaged at all. Not everybody can do this and it could easly be damaged. You know, its a bit like getting in a fish. We only get half the profit from this product. The tradesman at the Grand Bazaar get's the big prize. But because I do it cheap and with quality the tourists know me too and they know I sell good products. Generally good craftsmanship is not appreciated in Turkey; but people who know will undesrtands. Even though we produce the best marpuçs we still face rivallary of cheap products.