Wikipedia defines hookah this way: hookah, also known as the qalyān or Shisha is a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for either heating or vaporizing and smoking, tobacco, flavored tobacco, or sometimes cannabis, hashish, and in the past opium, whose vapor is passed through a water basin—often glass-based—before inhalation. 

Hookah is the pipe, shisha is the tobacco, marijuana or other substance. 

World Health Organization condemns hookah:  https://www.chronicle.co.zw/who-condemns-shisha-smoking/

Water pipe smoking delivers nicotine—the same highly addictive drug found in other tobacco products. The tobacco in hookahs is exposed to high heat from burning charcoal, and the smoke is at least as toxic as cigarette smoke.

Talking points for decision makers on policies; As community members work to make their communities tobacco and smoke-free, there are increasing requests to exempt hookah from various restrictions.

• Hookah is primarily used by young adults 18 to 29 years of age in California.  The Hispanic/Latino population makes up the largest proportion of young adult hookah users (54.1%), which suggests that hookah use is not limited to a cultural and social practice among Middle Easterners, Indians, Armenians and Persians, but rather that hookah use has become commercialized.

• Hookah lounges and bars are accessible throughout California with most being in urban areas, specifically South Bay Area/San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Within those areas, there are significant clusters near San Diego State University and San Jose State University.29  (Map: https://arcg.is/10TrSm)

• By including hookah in policies that prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products, youth and young adults are protected from the harms of tobacco, and no communities are left behind in achieving health and wellness.

Check out this fact sheet on hookah: https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/factsheets/0384.pdf