Did smoking exist in Eurasia before the introduction of tobacco?

[gaucho]

Were there any equivalent herbs people smoked in pipes, cigars or cigarettes? Or did it beging wholesale with the advent of American tobacco, without precedent? I assume some people smoked hashish and opium before the 1500s, but was there anything people puffed on for taste, relaxation, or habit?

[alphaboi867]

[QUOTE=gaucho]
…I assume some people smoked hashish and opium before the 1500s, but was there anything people puffed on for taste, relaxation, or habit?
[/QUOTE]

(bolding mine)

I think you answered your own question.

[gaucho]

I can bump once, right?

[John_Mace]

Wikipedia is always a good place to start.

Pipe Smoking.

[Squink]

History of Hashish

Early 12th Century: Hashish smoking very popular throughout the Middle East.

Cannabis

Evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke can be found as far back as the Neolithic age, as evidenced by charred seeds found in a ritual brazier at an ancient burial site in present day Romania.[8]

[John_Mace]

[QUOTE=Squink]
History of Hashish
Cannabis

Evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke can be found as far back as the Neolithic age, as evidenced by charred seeds found in a ritual brazier at an ancient burial site in present day Romania.[8]

[/QUOTE]

Probably farther back than that-- I think we now know why H. erectus invented fire.

[gaucho]

Okay, so how widespread was the smoking of hash? My impression was always that it was fairly arcane- Hassan-I-Sabbah and all that. Did it really lay a fertile ground for kicking back with a cigarette once tobacco became available?

[Squink]

More at Opium:

Until the practice of smoking was introduced to Europe and Asia after tobacco smoking in the Americas was observed and copied, opium was mostly either eaten or drunk. An early form of opium smoking involved the consumption of madak, a blend of tobacco and opium that became common in Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries. By the 19th century, in part because of a ban on madak in China, smoking of pure opium became more common.

[Dr.Drake]

Smoking is also a common method of treatment in various folk medical traditions in Europe and Asia. I don’t know how far back that goes (I don’t have resources to go back further than the 19th century), but I suspect quite a ways. That’s very different from recreational smoking, though, and even if the physical process was the same I don’t know how pleasant (or safe) it was. Various products smoked include mullein leaves, henbane leaves, and jimsonweed.