the museum
The Museum
What we know about the wood, written down. Where it grows, why it resins, how it is distilled, and what the Gulf has done with it for as long as anyone has counted.
The wood
Why a tree makes oud
Oud is the resin-saturated heartwood of the Aquilaria tree. A healthy tree produces none. When the tree is wounded and infected, it floods the injury with resin; the hardened result is agarwood, called oud.
readWhy it stays scarce
readReading resin
Sinking, semi-sinking, floating: the trade’s measure of resin density, based on whether a piece sinks in water. Sinking is densest. Semi-sinking, often given as a percentage such as 60–70%, is the grade most collectors burn. Floating pieces hold the least resin.
read
The origins
The distillation
The majlis
Questions
- What is oud?
- Oud is the resin-saturated heartwood of the Aquilaria tree. A healthy tree produces none; when it is wounded and infected, it floods the injury with resin, and the hardened result is agarwood — oud.
- What is the difference between agarwood chips and oud oil?
- The same material at two stages. Chips are the resinous wood itself, burned on low heat. Oud oil is distilled from that wood — soaked, then run through a still — and worn on skin.
- What does "sinking" or "semi-sinking" mean?
- Whether a piece sinks in water — the trade’s measure of resin density. Sinking is densest. Semi-sinking, often given as a percentage such as 60–70%, is the grade most collectors burn. Floating pieces hold the least resin.
- How do I burn oud chips?
- Foil or a mica plate between the coal and the burner. One chip. Low heat, lifted off before it blackens. High heat takes the sweetness first and leaves only smoke.
- Which origin should I start with?
- Cambodian, usually — sweet, warm, easy to burn, and the most forgiving of a first attempt. Indian is heavier and smokier. Vietnamese is the quietest of the three.
- How long does oud oil last on skin?
- Oud oil sits among the heaviest molecules in perfumery, so it does not lift off with the first hours. One stroke on the pulse point is a full wearing.
- Why is oud expensive?
- Resinous wood is scarce — infection passes one tree and leaves its neighbour. And soaked wood yields only one to three percent of its weight as oil, over cycles that can run ten to fifteen days unbroken.
- How should oud be stored?
- Sealed, dark, away from heat, for both wood and oil. Neither spoils, but light and open air flatten an oil and dry the surface of a chip.
- Do you ship outside the UAE?
- No. Delivery is within the UAE only today, anywhere in it. For an order from outside, write to us on WhatsApp and we will answer case by case.
- Is your agarwood wild or cultivated?
- Cultivated. Aquilaria is listed on CITES Appendix II, and wild wood carries a regulatory burden we will not pass to a buyer. Cultivated wood is wounded and distilled the same way; the difference is in the paperwork, not the smoke.