Perfumes and Fragrances of Arabia
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
17 February 2026
The world got the idea of perfumes from Arabia. The idea and development of modern perfume-making are deeply rooted in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age (8th–14th centuries). While ancient civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia used scents, it was Islamic scholars who revolutionized the industry by perfecting distillation techniques and introducing alcohol-based perfumes. Remember the Bard of Avon's immortal line, " All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand " (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1). Fragrance appeals to the olfactory nerves and fills the entire entity with a feel good after effect. The whole empire of perfume business all over the world depends on this simple principle that perfume binds people together (it repulses as well, if mixed with profuse perspiration!). Whether it's Jovan Musk, Dolce & Gabbana, Brute, Guerlain (one of the world's oldest perfume brands; 1828), Lombardi, Eau de Cologne, Hermès; aftershave or any deodorant, fragrances appeal to the senses and mellow people down. It has the power to calm down the frayed nerves.
The Arabs and English emissaries always gifted perfumes as 'nazrana' to the kings and emperors. English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe gifted the Mughal emperor Jahangir, a bottle of Scottish wild rose perfume, the best at that time. Mark Anthony gifted musk to his lady-love Cleopatra and that sealed the fate of their legendary love. It was indeed 'passionately fragrant', to borrow Sir Edward Gibbon's phrase, which he coined in his magnum opus, ' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.' Rabindranath Tagore wrote 31 out of 103 poems in Gitanjali on colourful perfumed papers and though it's debatable, perceptive Tagorean critics and experts like Kshitimohan Sen (maternal grandfather of Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen) and Prabhat Kumar Mukherjee opined that those were the finest poems in the compilation of songs of offering. Hakim Sanai, the redoubtable Persian mystic, used perfumed ink to write his mystical poems. He wrote in his book of divine poetry written in Dari (Afghan variant of Persian), 'Payaam-e-Khuda' that 'Roshnai choon azz khushboo/Ghaibi payaam un neez har soo' (if ink is fragrant, the divine messages written with it, spread far and wide). Fariduddin Attar, the legendary Persian mystic and the putative master of Jalaluddin Rumi, would sprinkle a few drops of attar (perfume) here and there before sitting to write his immortal mystic poetry.
He and his whole family was into making 'attar' (perfumes). So, he was called 'Attar.' Dhaka University's world-renowned historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar wrote in his now unavailable essay, ' Idea of fragrance in erstwhile India and Arabia,' that ' The rest of the world learnt the art of grooming with the help of scents from India and Arabia because the West, even the advanced Greek and Romans, didn't have a discerning sense of pleasant smell.' It's interesting to learn that the highly advanced Greeks were collectively fascinated by the smell of blood at the time when Indians and Arabs were experimenting with an array of subtle smells. Agreed, the personal preferences also decide the types of fragrance, but a jasmine scent will any day appeal more than a perfume that has the smell of human-blood! We must never forget that the old perfume distilleries in Bihar and Hooghly in West Bengal were plundered and vandalised by the sepoys of East India Company. We remained subservient to them and the invaders stole the ideas from us with absolute nonchalance.
Who's to be blamed? Lastly, fragrances remain in the consciousness and memories long after the departure of the person who was once a part of your life and existence. " In the course of time, a woman's perfume is a more moving memory than a photograph of her." French raconteur Guy de Maupassant was right. That's why, it's aptly said that the perfumes exhume the memories and help them last longer. It (perfume) is the confessed trace of passion. Perfume is a poem to be breathed in. Without perfume, the skin is mute and the soul is silent. Remember, Nida Fazli's immortal song in Rafi's inimitable voice, " Khushboo hoon main phool nahin hoon jo murjhaaoonga" from the film 'Shayad' (1979).
…
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/perfumes-fragrances-arabia-/d/138883
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism