Oud: The scent of Arabian luxury

Article written by RIMA AL-MUKHTAR

A renowned Arab Caliph once said: “If I were a merchant, I would only trade in Oud perfume, so that if I did not make a profit, I would have profited from its sensational scent.”

Oud (agarwood or agar) comes from trees found in India, Cambodia, Yemen, Thailand and Ethiopia. It is a certain fungal infection that comes from Aquilaria trees, which is peeled off the tree. The chips are initially pale and light in color; the heartwood turns dense and dark as a result of the growth of a dangerous mold.

Oud has a very strong and unique scent that is available in chips, which are lit and burned. The scented smoke is called Bakhoor. Oud is also available in an oil form, which is placed in small perfume bottles. People apply the oil on certain areas such as behind the ears and on the wrists for a long-lasting scented effect.

Oud oil is produced by mashing agarwood and placing it in distilling pots and covering them with several inches of water. The lid is then closed and the pot is heated until the water boils. The boiling water ruptures the cells of the wood and the vapor of agarwood oil and steam rises to the top of the pot and escapes, released through a tube leading to a condenser. The condenser cools the vapor and is itself repeatedly cooled by water.

After soaking, the barrels of agarwood mash are emptied into distilling pots and placed over wood fires for distillation. The heating process may look primitive, but the fires are tended by skilled workers who control the temperature quite carefully.

As the vapor passes through the condenser and is cooled, it reverts to a liquid form and is collected in a vessel where the oil and water separate. The water is drawn off leaving the agarwood oil.Several distillations will generally occur, with the first producing the highest grade of agarwood oil and the last, the lowest. These distillations may continue over a week’s time. After distillation, the remaining mash from the distilling pot is left in the sun to dry. It will then be ground up and used to make joss sticks (incense). Before being bottled, the agarwood oil is filtered to remove dirt and impurities.

Bakhoor, the scented smoke, is made from placing the Oud chip on a bed of natural coal or lighted charcoal, which allows the wood to burn and puff the fragrance of the authentic Oud. Once the chip is burned out, it should be thrown away.

Traditionally in Saudi Arabia, when Oud is lit, the Oud burner is passed around from one person to another as part of Saudi hospitality. An old odd fact about Bakhoor is that when a host is tired of his visitors and wants them to leave, he/she would burn a chip of Oud and walk around the room. Guests would then know that this is a polite signal for them to leave.

Oud in its oil form (dehan) is a considerable investment. It is sold and measured in 12-milliliter bottles called tola. Prices for one tola range anywhere from SR300 to SR8,000. Anything below this price might be a copy or a Chinese imitation.

According to Um Mohammed, a Saudi woman who mixes Oud and has been selling it for a living for over 30 years, says there are other kinds of Oud aside from oil and Bakhoor. There is a special mix called Mabthouth.

“Mabthouth is an Oud paste that is made by crushing Oud wood and adding different scents from Oud dehan and flower oils. Then, the paste is shaped into balls,” she explained. “This paste gives a different smell than what a normal Oud chip would give. As soon as you put the Mabthouth on the flaming coal, you will smell different kinds of Arabian scents all together.”

There are different kinds of Mabthouth that are produced every year. Um Mohammed said that she takes each mixture under study before displaying and offering them to clients. Price range for Mabthouth goes from SR100 to SR500 per box.

Um Mohammed takes small poor quality pieces of Oud (wood chips), crushes them into tiny morsels and mixes them with different oils. When burned, this mixture gives off a better scent than the poor quality pieces when burned alone. This is only done to improve the quality of Oud.

Only natural materials are used to manufacture Arabian Oud mixtures. Um Mohammed uses musk, patchouli, oak, jasmine flower, rose flower, saffron, cedar, amber, bergamot, sandalwood and, of course, agarwood.

Saudi women use a certain method of Bakhoor burning: They walk around the house holding the burner to scatter the smoke in every room. They also wave their abayas and clothing above the smoke so that it picks up the scent and stays there for long. Other Saudi women use Oud and Bakhoor as body perfume by applying dehan on their hair. They put some of the dehan on the tip of their fingers and run it through their wet hair, or they just wave their hair on the smoke coming out of the Bakhoor burner.

Imam Bukhari reported that Oud is known to be an excellent scent for strengthening the body and the mind. According to him, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Treat with Indian incense (Oud Al-Hindi) for it has healing for seven diseases; it is to be sniffed by one having throat problems and put in the mouth for one suffering from pleurisy.”

Oud is also used to traditionally treat asthma, chest congestion, colic, nausea, kidney problems, thyroid cancer, lung tumors, and post childbirth. It is also a general tonic in China, India and Japan.

International perfume brands such as Tom Ford, Armani, Dior, Kilian and more are now embracing Oud for its distinctive long-lasting scent and are including it in their luxurious perfume mixtures.

Popular brand stores in Saudi Arabia that are famous for selling high quality Oud are: Arabian Oud, Ajmal and Abdul Samad Alqurashi.

HOW TO LINK A FAKE DEHAN AL 3OUD? 

Get a glass of water. Put a drop of real dehan al 3oud and mix it. If the 3oud  dissolves in water in the same way as sugar dissolves in water, it means it is original. But the fake Chinese copy one, no matter how much u stir, it will remain as a  top layer in the glass of water. It will not dissolve.

When purchasing Oud - the best advice remains, "Let the buyer beware". Fakes are abound in the market place. Prior to purchasing 3oud chips, it is advised that you  break the oud chip and compare the color of the interior to the exterior. If one is lighter than the other, it is fake. Another test can be done by putting the 3oud chip in water, if it floats then it is completely wood - and it's fake!

Source:
http://www.arabnews.com/node/390956

DISGUSTING TOILETS AND RUN DOWN FILLING STATIONS

Carrying around enough tissue paper in my handbag nowadays is a lesson I had to unfortunately learn the hard way. In South Africa our home has an eastern toilet as well as a western style high pan. I personally find the eastern style toilet messy and unhygienic and hence at home I simply grew accustomed to the high pan.I have been forced to use  the low pan toilet in South Africa during the occasional camping trips which have  led to some uncomfortable situations but all-in-all, my experience at public washrooms has been generally positive especially at filling stations like Ultra city. Sure, on road trips, you would find the yucky, smelly, dirty washrooms but none of that experience could prepare me for what I would find in the Kingdom.

                            

Obviously, my experience is limited to using female washrooms here in the Kingdom but I am told by my colleagues that the male washrooms are quite similar in nature. As you can see, the Eastern style toilet can be used in a manner similar to the one presented on the YouTube video below (The video is hilarious but so true) There is a hole and a hose. Easy enough to figure out I suppose. When I viewed the video for the first time it kind of reminded me of all my disastrous toilet experiences during my trip to India. The toilets were just shocking. I have no words to describe the unhygienic and filthy state of Indian public toilets. There were times when I really required to use a toilet whilst out sight seeing and upon seeing the condition of the restrooms it caused my urge to disappear almost instantly. I recall an incident whilst out shopping in Mumbai city and my dad needed to use the restroom urgently. So what he decided to do was hop into a taxi and get dropped of at the nearest five star hotel in town so that he could use their bathroom..I will never ever forget my toilet experience in one of the villages in Gujurat, India. For a start the toilet was situated outside from the main house and was literally a hole in the ground. The toilet was made out of corrugated metal sheeting very similar to a shack house that we very often see in South Africa. The toilet had no lights and so during the day slight amount of light would come through from the holes in the sheeting. I remember using the toilet one morning after breakfast only to come out screaming after noticing a huge cat size rat that ran past me whilst in the squatting position. (lol--- I am laughing as I write this)

Usually in South Africa even after utilizing water to wash your buttocks, there is always toilet paper on hand to dry the water away. But here in the Kingdom, in most public toilets you will not find toilet paper. Going to the toilet is quite an experience and a half with most public toilets allowing you the choice to utilize either a western high pan or an eastern squat pan.

So this is the basic scenario with regards to the toilet issue in the Kingdom. You are out at a shopping mall with your best friends for a ladies night out. You are dressed in your most elegant flowing abaya for the  occasion and in between the whole experience you suddenly have the urge to use the restroom. So you rush off to the nearest female toilets only to find that the entire floor area looks as though a tsunami has hit the place. There is black murky stagnant water, hair and dirt everywhere. There is also urine drops on the toilet seat. Now you begin to wonder what the hell was the person before you doing in the toilet? Why have they splashed water all over the place? For your information the toilet story in the Kingdom is a never ending story as scenarios like the one I described to you above happens every time, at every toilet and to everyone.

You would think that the Kingdom with all its oil wealth and with the Saudi Royal family traveling abroad almost every week on end would gather some insight from other countries into building adequate restrooms that are clean and hygienic for their citizens. The pilgrims traveling between Makkah and Medina by vehicle have a really difficult time as the garages or filling stations here in the Kingdom are a sight for sore eyes.
I remember traveling between Makkah and Medina two years ago and we stopped for the Asr prayers at a masjid on the way. That urge to use the toilet simply disappeared after viewing the disgusting state of the toilet. A strong urine smell emanated from the toilet and there was dirty stagnant water everywhere. The most shocking part of it all was that the toilet was right next to the masjid. There is a hadith that states "Attahooru Shatral Imaan"...Cleanliness is half of faith.... So with hygiene and cleanliness being a part of the Islamic religion I fail to understand why all the bathrooms and restrooms here in the Kingdom are so dirty.

The airport toilets are generally more user friendly as there is usually a  cleaner who stays permanently in the restroom mopping and cleaning as you leave the toilet. However, the manner in which she cleans is just so primitive and outdated. Buckets of water is thrown onto the floor as though a flood hit the place and then she takes a mop and mops up all the water down a drain. With so many sophisticated cleaning machines available in the market you would expect a country that is rich to have better systems in place.Wearing a long abaya and entering into a toilet bombarded with stagnant water all over is definitely not a pleasant experience at all. Your clothes become impure which in turn makes it very difficult to perform your prayers.
If there is someone from Saudi reading this blog, please, please please can you tell me why are the Filling stations sooooooo run down and why are the washrooms in this country so dirty and unhygienic!!!!

So, What's your nationality?

Saudi Arabia has to be undoubtedly the only country in the world where everything is based on nationality.Your job, where you reside and even the service that you receive is all dependent on the passport you carrying.Nationalities are classed into different zones.So you may be thinking that Saudi citizens are classed as zone one as they are the native people of the country. Wrong!!!Think again. You will be shocked to learn that Americans and Canadians top the list followed by Saudi citizens and thereafter various other nationalities follow with Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos and Bangladeshis at the lower end of the list.I find it surprising that  the people  of the country haven't questioned this.So what does it mean if you carrying an American or Canadian passport. Well,you will be eligible to numerous perks and benefits that are simply not afforded to many of the other nationalities.You will be entitled to a huge villa with pool and cleaning service, you will be given a higher salary than everyone else and many a times you will be offered to fly to the States twice a year at the cost of the company. I find the house bit ironic when there are thousands of Saudis who do not have homes or big villas to reside in. Almost 60 % of Saudi citizens live in rented apartments or homes.There are many Americans that I work with who simply have diploma degrees or normal B.Sc degrees but earn salaries that are three times more than their counterparts.For some odd reason, the perception here is that if you come from the USA or Canada you automatically are a great, intelligent person.Shouldn't a salary be based on merit in terms of the knowledge and experience that you have acquired  rather than upon a passport or nationality?

I have two friends. One is American and the other is Pakistani. The American has a normal Bachelors degree whereas the Pakistani has a doctorate in his field. The most amazing thing is that the American earns almost four times more than the Pakistani, is given the best accommodation within the hospital compound along with various other perks. The Pakistani on the other hand is not allowed accommodation within the hospital compound neither is he entitled to an education allowance for his kids.Of course the American friend is allowed a very high education allowance for two kids.If Saudi Arabia calls itself a Muslim country, then how can these bizarre policies ever be deemed as Islamic. This principle is totally against the teachings of Islam. Why is there a  perception that anyone from the west is great and intelligent whereas people from the east are poor, uneducated, etc etc.

The same kind of bizarre attitude exists at the airport as well. Many a times I would arrive at either King Khaled International airport in Riyadh or King Abdul Aziz airport in Jeddah only to find queues of Filipinos and Indians waiting patiently to pass through customs and immigrations. They would be spoken to in a very abrupt manner and treated with complete disrespect.At the same time I noticed many Americans or lets just say western orientated people treated with great care at the airport. They are usually asked to  proceed to a separate gate where there are  no queues at all.What kind of a mentality is this?

At the Janadriyya festival  this year a group of Saudi friends who visited were refused entry at a stage show as there were no more seats available. There were however four rows of seats right in front reserved in the event of any VIP guests arriving to view the show.As my Saudi friends left they encountered a group of western nurses who were also heading for the same show. They told them that there are no more seats available. However, at this point the guard came up to the western nurses and simply ushered them  straight in to the VIP area of the event to the amazement of my friends who were quite annoyed and upset.

We were having a chat the other night over coffee with my colleagues about  how one nationality perceives the other. Mr. N a Saudi gentleman views all Bangladeshis as thieves, all Pakistanis are shrewd and dirty especially the cab drivers according to him, Lebanese women are promiscuous and well Indians are perceived by him as being quiet and generally not too bad. So during this conversation, Mr F who is a Pakistani  doctor said that all Saudis are lazy, they come to work late and leave early and if all the expats left Saudi Arabia overnight the country would literally collapse.Its really awesome working with people from all over the world. Its is even more fascinating learning about their cultures and knowing about how they view the rest of the world. Whilst some of the stereotypes that we have created are true I still believe and maintain that at the end of it all we are all simply human beings and so irrespective of race, colour or creed, in every society you will find the good, the bad and the ugly. You are bound to find lazy and hard working people in all parts of the world and whilst many people here are under the assumption that Bangladeshis are thieves, you are bound to find thieves in America and within Saudi Arabia too.

There is one event that occurs yearly in Saudi Arabia and also happens to be one of the five pillars of Islam. The Hajj ritual quite rightly sums up the whole discussion regarding the issue of  nationalities.During the Hajj ritual all nationalities stand  together side by side dressed in one attire.There is no differentiation between rich  and poor, American and Indian,educated and uneducated individuals, everyone stands in front of God as His servants. No one is better than the other or more superior than the other.I think this policy of nationality that exists in Saudi Arabia is something that should be addressed and abolished. Everyone should be treated equally based on merit rather than a document stating that you are an American or an Indian for that matter. Respect is something that every human being deserves irrespective of class or status.This is the basis of the Islamic religion which unfortunately is not practiced within our so called "Islamic countries". As the Prophet (saw) said that an Arab is not  superior over a non Arab and a white person is not superior over a black person accept in good deeds and piety.

One man's meat is another man's poison

Working the night shift in the  emergency pharmacy is usually my favourite shift. Not only is the atmosphere more relaxed and laid back  but I also tend to encounter the most colourful, vibrant patients during the night. There are some patients who only prefer frequenting the hospital during the night as they sleep during the day and hence I have become more familiar with them and know many of them now on a personal level. Last night I had an encounter with two females who both hailed from completely different family backgrounds. Both women were walking the path of life with different life destinies and yet what intrigued me the most was that both desired what the other one had.

Mrs. M arrived at the pharmacy just before midnight with her husband. She was visibly distraught and her red puffy eyes indicated that she had been crying. She is a tall, slender woman with fair skin and beautiful Arabian eyes. She is also a mother of five kids and a week ago her doctor informed her that she is two months pregnant despite having been fitted with a contraceptive device that has obviously failed. Her husband explained to me that they wish to abort the baby due to the financial situation in their home. They have been frequenting different pharmacies throughout the city trying to get a drug that is used often in South Africa to bring about an abortion.Here in the Kingdom though, the drug is not available for sale and is only available in some hospitals and utilized after a gynaecologist has declared that the health of the mother is at risk if she delivers the baby or in the event a child will be born with serious abnormalities.
I honestly didn't know what to say to them. The only thing I could say was that the baby is a gift from God Almighty.Mrs. M said that she was never the type who wanted to have a huge family. However, she married into a family where her in laws and her husband wanted her to have many kids as she is the eldest daughter in law in the home. She feels that she has not given her kids the best upbringing and has neglected them many a times as she is unable to cope with them as they are all merely one year apart.

After they left, Mrs. G came by to visit me. She is a delightfully bubbly personality and lives in Dammam, the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. The people of the Ash-Sharqiyya or the eastern province are very friendly and relaxed. They have a more liberal outlook to life and many of the women in that part of Saudi do not wear the full veil. They simply wear the hijaab or head scarf.Mrs. G was in Riyadh as her mom was a patient in our hospital having undergone a major valve replacement surgery due to rheumatic fever that was diagnosed during her childhood. Mrs. G is a pharmacist as well and is the second eldest out of 10 siblings. For the past week she has been visiting me during the nights and somehow we have formed a special friendship. Last night though she opened up to me and  shared with me some of the best and the worst moments in her life.She was lucky to be brought up in a liberal educated family. Hence, the happiest moment in her life was getting married to the man of her dreams  whom she  desired to marry. Her husband is a pharmacist as well and they both studied together.Mrs. G always wears a smile on her face. However, behind this facade of happiness is actually a dark cloud of sadness. She has been married for four years and has had three miscarriages. Last year during her fifth month of pregnancy, expecting twins she miscarried. Doctors have told her that her chances of conceiving in the future will be less than before. Of course that is purely the will of God. Her husband is a kind and understanding man, however his family is encouraging him to marry another woman for the sake of having a child.Mrs. G at this point feels sad and disappointed. She wishes to adopt a baby but in this society adoption is not the best option. Her husband agrees to adopt a baby but his family are not very accepting to the idea of adoption.Also not many women here would adopt their babies very easily.

I then thought about Mrs. M and her husband who  I had encountered earlier.She didn't want a huge family with many kids and is even considering aborting her sixth child whilst Mr.s H on the other hand always dreamed of having a huge family with many kids but is yet to have one child.There are hundreds of women here in the Kingdom who are unable to conceive due to one reason or another and this brings about a huge strain on many relationships as a result thereof. I then decided that both women should meet each other and maybe Mrs. M would be willing to adopt her new born baby to Mrs. G instead of aborting the child. With me playing the middle man I decided to introduce both women to each other. I do not know what transpired between them but I hope that God willing they have reached an agreement so that both are satisfied. Sometimes God uses us as a tool to alleviate someone else's pain and suffering.We never know what life has in store for us but what I do know is that God never burdens anyone with more than they can handle.Every cloud does have a silver lining. We just need to believe in that!!!