The History of Oud: How It Traveled from the Forests of Southeast Asia to the Arabian Peninsula

Before the majlis oud reaches your burner, it has crossed a journey spanning thousands of kilometers and thousands of years. The story began in the tropical rainforests of South and Southeast Asia, passed through the temples of India, the palaces of China, the ships of the Indian Ocean, and the ports of the Arabian Peninsula, until oud became today an emblem of Arab hospitality and a pillar of the Gulf majlis. In this article we tell that journey in full: how does oud form in the heart of the tree? How did the ancient civilizations know it? How did it cross the seas to settle in the conscience of the peninsula's people? And where does the oud industry stand today between Indonesia and the Gulf?

The origin of agarwood: a tree that suffers, and perfumes the world

To understand the history of oud we must begin from the tree itself. Oud is not a kind of wood that grows fragrant in every trunk, but a rare phenomenon that occurs inside the trees of the genus Aquilaria, tropical trees that grow in the rainforests extending from northeastern India and Bangladesh, through Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, all the way to Malaysia and the islands of the great Indonesian archipelago: Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.

The healthy Aquilaria tree has light-colored, lightweight, nearly odorless wood of no aromatic value. But when the tree is injured — by a wound in its bark, or a break from a storm, or a fungal and microbial invasion that creeps into its tissues — it responds with an astonishing defensive reaction: it secretes a dense aromatic resinous substance that saturates the wood tissues around the site of the injury, trying to isolate and contain it. And over long years of this silent struggle between the tree and what afflicted it, the light, lightweight wood turns into dark, heavy wood saturated with resin, which is what we call oud.

This scientific fact explains the secret of oud's rarity and value: not every Aquilaria tree produces oud, nor does every part of the afflicted tree turn into oud, but only specific regions around the injury. And this is why natural oud has been throughout history — and still is — among the most precious aromatic materials on the face of the earth, for it combines rarity of occurrence, long years of formation, and the difficulty of reaching it in the depths of the forests.

And those who contemplate this wood like to pause at the paradox embedded in its origin: the most precious scent humanity has known was not born of the tree's ease but of its ordeal. The sound tree that was never wounded lives and dies as ordinary wood no one heeds, whereas the tree that a wound struck and that resisted it for long years turns its pain into a resin that wafts for centuries after. And perhaps this meaning — that the finest fragrance is the fruit of a long patience over affliction — is what made oud, across civilizations, a symbol that transcends being an aromatic material, and made the peoples who knew it surround it with an aura of esteem that nearly touches the sacred.

Why does fine oud sink in water?

The more the wood is saturated with resin, the greater its density, until the finest pieces of oud sink in water instead of floating. This simple property was, across the centuries, the first test relied upon by merchants and experts to distinguish the higher grades, and its importance will appear shortly when we speak of oud's ancient Chinese name.

Oud in the ancient texts: from Sanskrit to China

Agaru: oud in the ancient Indian heritage

Historical sources indicate that India is among the oldest civilizations that knew and prized oud. In the ancient Sanskrit language it was known by the name Agaru, and from this root came the modern global name Agarwood. This aromatic wood was mentioned in ancient Indian texts as one of the precious fragrances used for incense and employed in religious and worldly occasions, and its presence was tied to temples and rituals as it was tied to the assemblies of kings and notables.

Chén xiāng: the sinking scent in China

And in ancient China oud was known by a name of exquisite meaning: Chén xiāng (沉香), whose literal meaning is "the sinking scent" or "the incense that sinks" — a direct reference to the sink test in water that we mentioned. The ancient Chinese sources relate a great esteem for this wood, so it was among the most precious things reaching the imperial court from the south, and was used in incense, traditional medicine, and carving, and possessing it became a mark of elevation and station.

Oud in the Arab and Islamic heritage

As for the Arabs, they knew oud before Islam among what reached them of the fragrance of the East through the caravans of trade and its ships, and its standing became firmly rooted after Islam, a great rooting. Perfuming with oud and censers is known and mentioned in the Islamic heritage, and the books of hadith contain references to Indian oud and to the use of incense and censers in perfuming, until fragrance in general — and oud in particular — became a part of the etiquette of cleanliness, adornment, and hospitality in Islamic culture. And much is related in the reports and literature of the Arabs about the censers of oud in the assemblies of the caliphs and princes, and about its being among the most precious gifts exchanged by the courts.

And what draws attention in the ancient Arabic sources is their precision in distinguishing oud's origins; the writers and merchants differentiated between Indian oud and Qamari oud — named after a kingdom in the ancient land of the Khmer — and Sanfi and Qaqulli oud and other names attributed to the countries of the Far East and their ports, and they ranked them in quality and price. And this precise classification, long centuries ago, resembles in its essence what we do today when we distinguish between Kalimantan oud, Sumatran oud, and Papua oud: knowing the origin was — and still is — the first of the keys to knowing oud.

The movement between India, China, and Southeast Asia

Oud did not remain a captive of the forests in which it was born. For since far-distant centuries, land and sea trade routes were active linking India to China by way of Southeast Asia, and oud was among the precious goods that moved across these networks, alongside spices, silk, and precious stones. Historical sources indicate that the spread of Buddhism from India toward China, Southeast Asia, and Japan was among the most important levers of this movement, for incense held a central place in the rituals of the Buddhist temples, so oud traveled with the monks, the pilgrims, and the merchants wherever the temples traveled.

And these routes had their intermediate stations that flourished thanks to oud and its sisters among the precious goods: kingdoms and harbors in the Malay Peninsula and the islands of the archipelago whose economies stood upon the brokerage of trade between East and West, receiving the ships of China on one side and the ships of India and the Indian Ocean on the other, and in their markets oud, camphor, spices, silk, and porcelain were exchanged. And thus Southeast Asia was not merely a birthplace of oud, but was also the heart of the network of its circulation — a standing the Indonesian archipelago will regain in our modern age powerfully, as we shall see.

The temples and the courts: an unbroken demand

In China, Korea, Japan, and the kingdoms of Southeast Asia, two great demands converged upon oud: the demand of the temples that perfumed with it in their rituals, and the demand of the courts and upper classes that saw in it the summit of aromatic luxury. This double demand made oud a strategic commodity in ancient Asian trade, and drove the merchants to penetrate ever farther into the forests in search of new sources, which gradually led to the discovery of the richness of the Indonesian archipelago's forests in oud trees.

Kōdō: when incense became an art

And in Japan the celebration of oud reached a unique summit, for over the centuries there arose an independent art standing on its own: Kōdō, meaning "the way of incense": the art of tasting the scents of oud and listening to them in organized sessions with their own etiquette and rules, still counted today among the refined classical Japanese arts alongside the art of tea and the art of flower arranging. And this art alone suffices as evidence of the standing oud reached in the Asian conscience.

The maritime trade across the Indian Ocean: the incense road to the West

The most important chapter in oud's journey toward the Arabian Peninsula was written by the ships of the Indian Ocean. For the ancient sailors — among them the Arabs, the Persians, and the Indians — mastered the secret of navigating this ocean: the monsoon winds that blow in regular, known seasons, easterly in one season and westerly in another, carrying the ships from the coasts of India and Southeast Asia to the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa, then returning them in the opposite season. This regularity made the Indian Ocean a great trade bridge, not a barrier.

And on the banks of this bridge flourished ports that entered history: Aden in the south of the peninsula, the gate of the Red Sea and the meeting point of the ships of India and Africa; Sohar on the coast of Oman, which the ancient Muslim geographers described as among the greatest ports of its time and the corridor of China; and Basra at the head of the Gulf, the harbor of Iraq and from it to Baghdad and the rest of the Islamic East. Through these ports flowed shipments of oud, camphor, sandalwood, and spices, and the sea routes met the ancient overland incense roads that carried frankincense and myrrh from the south of the peninsula toward the north.

And we may imagine the scene of one of those ports in the season of the ships' arrival: vessels laden with crates of aromatic wood mooring after months at sea, brokers examining the pieces and weighing and grading them, and caravans waiting to carry the treasures to the inland capitals — to Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo. The journey of a single shipment from the forests of the Far East to a censer in an Arab home might take a full year or more, tossed about by the seasons, the ports, and the hands, and each stage added to the wood value and to its story a chapter. So it is no wonder that oud in those ages reached prices mentioned in the reports coupled with gold and jewels.

The role of the Arab and Persian merchants

The Arabs were not mere consumers in this trade, but were among its most active carriers. Historical sources indicate that the Arab and Persian merchants and sailors reached, in the early Islamic ages, the ports of India and Southeast Asia and even China itself, and founded trading communities in those ports. And the books of the Muslim geographers and travelers — such as the authors of the books of routes and kingdoms and the reports of China and India — mention oud among the goods of those regions, and distinguish between its origins and rank them, which indicates an ancient and deep Arab knowledge of oud's geography and grades. And it is curious that this Arab commercial presence in the archipelago of Southeast Asia was among the tributaries that later paved the way for the spread of Islam there, until Indonesia became today the largest Muslim country in the world — and the largest exporter of oud to the Arab world, as if history were closing its circle.

Oud's arrival in the Arabian Peninsula: from a commodity to an identity

When oud arrived in the Arabian Peninsula it did not arrive in a land strange to incense. For the people of the peninsula are the heirs of the oldest civilizations of fragrance: from their land came the frankincense and myrrh that ancient Egypt and Rome sought, and through their land passed the famous overland incense road. The censer was present in the Arab home before oud, so when oud came it found an established culture of perfuming awaiting it, and it took its throne without rival.

And over the centuries oud turned from a precious imported commodity into a part of the fabric of Arab life itself. The burner came to circle upon the guests at the closing of the majlis, and perfuming the clothes and the place before occasions became an inherited habit, and oud became present in people's joys, their feasts, and the reception of their guests. And the question of the Gulf home was no longer: do we perfume with oud? but: which oud do we choose? — the very question to which we today devote whole pages such as the guide to oud bukhoor and the guide to majlis oud.

And oud found its way into Arabic poetry and literature as it found its way into the assemblies; the mention of censers, incense, and the good scent wafting from the assemblies of the noble abounded in the poetry of the Arabs, and the fragrance of oud in the description of the literati became a mark of the bliss of the place and the generosity of its people. And when something penetrates the poetry of a nation, its proverbs, and the etiquette of its hospitality, know that it has ceased to be a commodity bought, and has become a part of its image of itself — and this is exactly what oud became in the Arabian Peninsula.

The censer in the Arab home

The censer in Arab culture has its inherited etiquette: it is circled upon the guests from the right, the guest perfumes himself with it three times then passes it on, and the Arabs' proverb "no sitting after the oud" makes of the burner's round a gracious signal to the closing of the majlis without a word said. These small details reveal how oud transcended the role of a commodity to the role of a social language: by it one welcomes, by it one honors, and by it one closes the gathering.

Oud and its oil: two faces of one treasure

And the Arabs knew both faces of oud together: the wood placed on the ember so its good smoke rises, and the oil extracted from the wood by distillation, placed in drops on the body and the clothes. And the heritage sources mentioned the kinds of compounded fragrance into which oud enters with musk and ambergris, which indicates a mature Arab perfume craft that stood upon this wood. And to this day this duality remains present in the Gulf home: a burner for the place and the guests, and oud oil for the body — and both begin from the very wood the forest formed.

From a rare material to a symbol of hospitality and station

In every civilization that knew oud, its meaning transcended its scent. But in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf this meaning reached its summit: oud became a measure of generosity and a symbol of station. For the host who kindles for his guests a fine oud says to them without words: you are with me in the highest standing. And this is why hospitality oud was tied to the most gracious occasions: the assemblies of reception, the nights of Ramadan and the two Eids, the weddings in which the invited are perfumed and the halls scented, the reception of newborns, and the honoring of great visitors.

And people's customs in oud graded as their customs in hospitality itself grade: a moderate daily oud for the home's sittings, a higher oud for occasions, and a premium oud saved for the elite of guests and the dearest occasions. And these traditions are still alive and pulsing today; indeed the new generation in the Gulf has rediscovered them with a deeper awareness, asking about oud's origin, grade, and nature as the connoisseurs ask about the origins of specialty coffee, and sometimes beginning their journey by trying oud samples before their taste settles on a particular origin.

Oud's seasons in the Gulf

And oud has its known seasons in the Gulf calendar. In Ramadan the assemblies multiply and the evenings lengthen, so the demand for bukhoor rises a rise every oud merchant knows; and just before the two Eids the homes and clothes are perfumed in preparation for the greetings; and in the wedding seasons oud is counted among the essentials of preparation as the hospitality and coffee are counted, indeed it has become the custom in many homes that oud and its oil be among the most precious of what is offered in wedding gifts. And these seasons are not merely purchasing peaks, but are the occasions in which the bond of the new generations to this heritage is renewed, as the young learn the etiquette of the burner in the assemblies of their families as their fathers learned it before them.

And among the charms of this heritage is that each home's taste in its oud is almost a signature of its own; this home favors the calm sweet oud, that one favors the strong deep one, and a third accepts nothing but pieces of a particular origin whose scent it has grown used to for decades. And this is why the choice of oud in Gulf culture was a deep-rooted personal act, in which a single recipe does not suit everyone — which makes a path like the sample kits a smart modern entrance to an old habit: that you try before you settle on your oud.

Milestones in oud's journey through history

These are the most prominent milestones of the journey as the historical sources sketch them in their broad outlines:

Indonesia and the Gulf: the modern relationship

Today, when a Gulf home kindles its burner, the glowing piece in it has most likely made its journey from the Indonesian archipelago. For with the decline of oud's historical sources in India and Indochina by the force of centuries of demand, Indonesia rose — with its vast forests spread over thousands of islands — to become the principal source of natural oud in the Gulf markets. And each Indonesian origin has its aromatic personality that the connoisseurs know: Kalimantan oud with its depth and persistence that made it the closest to the classical Gulf taste, Sumatran oud with its warm character, and Papua oud coming from the eastern edges of the archipelago with its less-frequented forests. And our comprehensive guide to Indonesian oud gathers them all.

And Indonesia's rise on the map of oud has its clear geographic reasons: the Indonesian archipelago contains some of the largest areas of remaining tropical rainforest in the world, and in it are spread kinds of oud trees extending from west Sumatra to the far east of Papua, across an immense environmental diversity of coastal plains, mountains, and marshes. This diversity of environments is reflected in a diversity of scent personalities, which explains why the Gulf connoisseurs find in Indonesian oud a wide spectrum that satisfies the difference of tastes — from the dark depth to the warm sweetness to the wild green breath.

The modern supply chain: from the forest to the majlis

The modern oud chain begins in the heart of the forest, where the oud harvesters — people of an inherited expertise in reading the trees — penetrate in search of the Aquilaria trees that bear the marks of formation, then the resinous wood is extracted and cleaned by hand and sorted and classified into grades reflecting the proportion of resin and the quality of the scent. And in the long traditional chains the wood then passes through a chain of middlemen, markets, and intermediary markets before it reaches the Gulf consumer, and each link adds a cost and clouds the knowledge of the origin.

And here Oud Treasure stands from this long story at a defined position: we work directly with the oud harvesters in the Indonesian forests, so we shorten the chain of middlemen and preserve for the piece its lineage — from which island it came and which grade it deserves — until it reaches your majlis in the Gulf with honest information and a fair price. This is not a revolution against history, but a resumption of its oldest chapters: an Arab merchant, an Asian commodity, and a sea route between them — except that the sailing ship has become modern shipping, and the port market has become an online store. You can read our whole story on the about us page.

A responsibility toward the tree and history

And the talk of the present is not complete without a word of truth about the future of this treasure. For centuries of rising demand have made the wild oud trees a resource that needs protection, and the Aquilaria species have been listed within the international agreements regulating the trade of endangered species, and the industry is turning globally toward plantations and artificial induction alongside regulated wild sources. And whoever truly loves oud realizes that respecting the tree and the cycles of the forest is not an environmental luxury, but is the only guarantee that this story will continue for other chapters — and that our children will find in their assemblies what we found in the assemblies of our fathers.

Conclusion: oud, a bridge of civilizations… and the story continues

Few are the materials that summarize the history of half the world as oud summarizes it. In a single piece of it converge the biology of the tropical forest, the memory of the ancient Indian and Chinese texts, the rituals of the Asian temples, the skill of the Indian Ocean sailors, the ports of Aden, Sohar, and Basra, and the generosity of the Arab majlis. When you place a piece of oud on the coal, you are not merely kindling an aromatic wood, but kindling the distillate of a civilizational dialogue centuries old between the Asian East and the Arabian Peninsula — a dialogue still ongoing, and we at Oud Treasure take pride in being one of its links today.

And perhaps the most beautiful thing about this story is that it is not preserved in a museum nor folded in a book, but renews itself every evening in thousands of assemblies: a burner circling, a guest honored, and a generation bequeathing to a generation its taste and its etiquette. The history we have related in this article is not a past we watch, but a present we live and add to — and every piece of oud you kindle tonight is a new line in this book, open for centuries.

And if you wish to touch this history with your hand, then begin from where it began: from the natural oud that the forest formed at its leisure, and choose your origin and your grade with knowledge.

Read also

This article is the opening of a series we devote to the history and culture of oud. Among the topics we are working on: the kinds of oud trees and the regions of their growth, the difference between oud's origins and how you distinguish them with your nose, and the art of burning: from the coal to the electric burner. And until they are released, these living guides may benefit you:

• The history of the oud trade between Indonesia and the Arab world
• The history of gaharu in Indonesia: from the forests to global trade
• When did the use of oud begin? The oldest historical references to agarwood
• Why is oud called oud? The origin of oud's names around the world
• Oud in Arab and Islamic history: from perfuming to assemblies and hospitality
• How did oud become a symbol of hospitality and station in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf?
• How was oud classified in the old days? The history of oud grades from the forest to the market
• What is the story of sinking oud? Its history and its relation to resin density
• Oud in Japan: the history of the art of Kōdō and listening to the scent
• From wild oud to the plantations: how did the oud industry change through history?
• The Indonesian oud guide: the origins and the grades
• Majlis oud: how do you choose your majlis oud?
• Oud samples: begin the tasting journey with a small step
• Oud in ancient medicine: what did the historical sources say and what does science say?
• Why is oud subject to the CITES convention? A guide to the regulation of the oud trade
• The history of Kalimantan oud and its trade: from the forests of Borneo
• The history of Sumatran oud: the land of aromatics on the Strait of Malacca
• The history of oud in Papua and eastern Indonesia: where the genus Gyrinops rules
• The history of gaharu in Maluku: oud in the original Spice Islands
• The history of oud gathering in Sulawesi: the island of sailors and middlemen
• The history of Merauke oud and its relation to the Merauke region