My eBook on Amazon: Oud History, Fragrance History and Arabian Heritage

After much demand from readers, today’s post is an overview of my debut eBook, which is titled ‘The Fragrance: The History of Perfume in Arabian and Islamic History’ which was published in January 2016. This book is the first in a short mini-series of eBooks, called The ‘Origins of Modern Western Society in Islamic History’, published by heritage publishers, Oriental Publishing. The second volume, also written by myself available here talks about the history of food.

But why is this book and subject so important? Fragrance forms as a part of human identity and it brings out the nuances of each individual person’s personality and each individual person’s distinctiveness. Through time, the fragrance changes just as man does, and with fragrance we associate, make memories and create dreams – which all make us yearn for something that occurred in the past, occurs in the present and it allows us to dream about our future. And for this reason, fragrance becomes timeless, but what is important is to know the history surrounding fragrance and how it came about to humanity, for humanity to care so much about it and how it has become a part of humanity itself. Some may say that this is digging too deep. I mean, it’s only perfume after all, right? Not the holy grail!


Well, you would be surprised, actually. 


This book talks about the perfume and fragrance history in Islamic heritage, and although it discusses this precious commodity in an Islamic light – this is with the view of the Islamic belief that the laws which govern humanity, the laws of morality for mankind were in existence since the beginning of time – whether you would call is Islam or something else. And this is what fragrance has in common with this concept – that indeed, not only was mankind born with the inherit need to follow the laws of morality, mankind was also born with the need for fragrance, because of its association with the heavens. It was from this which mankind descended from, and fragrance provides us with that ability to associate with the home of mankind. Without going into discussion on spirituality and deep philosophy, the whole of mankind have the common belief that a man is born and a man dies – that life is temporary, and being on that temporarily plain, it would not be unusual for man to crave home, or where he came from. And this is where fine fragrance can help mankind to fill that void in life: It allows us to do that dreaming, allows us to remember and it allows us to be taken back to the place we once were in life and dream about where we may be in the future. 

My book isn’t about life and death – but speaks about the Arabian fragrance, in the light of it being the foundation of the fragrance as we know of it today. Of course, Arabian oud fragrances still exist in that same form and the modern mainstream use of fragrance stems from that history, living alongside its descendants. Oud, being of course a fascination of mine – is actually due to the connection that we have to it in history and although in mainstream perfumery oud is a relatively new notes, we will learn that in fact it has been with us since the beginning of time itself. The book focuses on oud history and the movement of fragrances through time until now and the future. 

This short book is available as an eBook here, and there are plans in the future to release all volumes of this book in hardback. 

I hope you enjoy the read – whilst wearing your favourite oud scent, of course! ;)