An oud and attar house in Adelaide
Girih
GIRIH gi-REH. A Persian word for a knot.Come in and sit. The coals are lit.
Girih is an oud and attar house in Adelaide. We blend perfume oils with no alcohol in them, sell oud wood by the piece and make bakhoor to burn at home.
Sit a while. The first thread of smoke is already on its way up, through the middle of the page.
Bakhoor smoke rising from the burner.
i
The name is a knot
Five tiles and a single edge; the straps run on and tie.
MISRA mis-RAH. One half of a couplet; in Arabic, also one leaf of a double door.In Persian, girih means a knot. Makers in Persian, Arab, Central Asian and South Asian workshops use the same word for a way of drawing pattern: five tiles with sides of one length, whose corners are always a whole number of tenths of a turn. Two straps cross the middle of every side at the same angle, so when the tiles are laid edge to edge the straps run on without a break and knot into stars.
We gave each of our five blends one of the five tiles: the decagon to the house blend, because everything gathers round it, and the pentagon to the rose, because a wild rose has five petals.
Three of the five, the decagon, the bowtie and the long hexagon, can each be divided into smaller tiles of the same three kinds. The pattern in the margins is made from them in your browser, now, and each time you reach a new chapter it is divided once more, the way a craftsman lays a closer layer inside the first. It stops at the fourth layer. It is not copied from any building.
ii · Layer I
Turn the rosette
Ten materials in three rings; choose a blend, and turn it.
An attar is a perfume carried in oil, not alcohol. Ours are made from ten materials, and each blend uses a few of them in three tiers: the top notes you smell first, the heart that opens after a few minutes, and the base that stays.
ATTAR AT-ar. A perfume carried in oil; the word came to English through Persian and Urdu.Choose a blend, then turn the wheel to any material: arrow keys turn it, and so does a drag. The outer points are what you smell first, the middle ring the heart, the centre what stays. A dot marks each blend that uses the material at the head of the wheel.
1 · Oud wood, at the heart and base.
The dark heartwood of the agar tree, where resin has gathered as the tree sealed a wound. We distil it to an oil for the attars and keep chips and splinters whole for burning. Warm and deep, a little like leather and a little like smoke, even before it is lit.
In Sitting Room and Saffron Thread at the heart; in Amber Lamp at the base.
In Sitting Room: at the heart.
1 · Oud wood, at the heart and base.
The dark heartwood of the agar tree, where resin has gathered as the tree sealed a wound. We distil it to an oil for the attars and keep chips and splinters whole for burning. Warm and deep, a little like leather and a little like smoke, even before it is lit.
In Sitting Room and Saffron Thread at the heart; in Amber Lamp at the base.
2 · Rose, at the heart.
Rose petals, steam-distilled to an oil. Deep and a little honeyed, with none of the green sharpness of a cut stem. In the middle of a blend it draws the other notes closer together.
In Sitting Room and Rose Knot at the heart.
3 · Saffron, at the top.
The dried red threads of the saffron crocus, warmed in sandalwood oil for a week, then strained. The first thing you smell: bright, a little like hay and leather.
In Sitting Room and Saffron Thread at the top.
4 · Sandalwood, at the base.
Distilled from the heartwood. Soft, creamy and woody. It is the oil every one of our blends is carried in, and what you smell last.
In Sitting Room, Rose Knot and First Rain at the base; and it is the oil all five are carried in.
5 · Amber accord, at the base.
An accord, not a single material: labdanum and benzoin resins, melted together. Warm, sweet and resinous, like a room where a lamp has been burning for hours.
In Sitting Room, Saffron Thread and Amber Lamp at the base.
6 · White musk accord, at the base.
A clean, soft musk built from aroma materials; nothing in it comes from an animal. It sits close to the skin and smells of washed linen.
In Rose Knot and First Rain at the base.
7 · Frankincense, at the heart.
Tears of resin, distilled. Bright and peppery at first, then dry, with a little of the smell of citrus peel.
In Amber Lamp and First Rain at the heart.
8 · Cardamom, at the top.
Green cardamom seed, distilled. Cool and spiced: a pot of cardamom coffee just opened.
In Rose Knot, Saffron Thread and Amber Lamp at the top.
9 · Vetiver, at the base.
The roots of a tall grass, distilled. Dry, earthy and a little smoky, like soil after the first rain.
In Saffron Thread and First Rain at the base.
10 · Neroli, at the top.
Orange blossom, steam-distilled. Light, green and floral, a courtyard early in the morning.
In Rose Knot and First Rain at the top.
iii · Layer II
Five blends, set out
Five blends, a tile for each; a few notes tied in three.
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I · Sitting Room
Saffron at the door, oud and rose inside.
Top saffron · Heart oud wood, rose · Base amber accord, sandalwood
The house blend: what our sitting room smells of when the burner is lit.
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II · Rose Knot
Neroli and cardamom, then the rose, tied close.
Top neroli, cardamom · Heart rose · Base white musk accord, sandalwood
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III · Saffron Thread
Saffron on a long thread, and oud wood at the heart.
Top saffron, cardamom · Heart oud wood · Base vetiver, amber accord
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IV · Amber Lamp
Frankincense by a lamp, amber accord to finish.
Top cardamom · Heart frankincense · Base amber accord, oud wood
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V · First Rain
Neroli on the cool stone, vetiver, after the rain.
Top neroli · Heart frankincense · Base white musk accord, vetiver, sandalwood
| Material | I Sitting Room | II Rose Knot | III Saffron Thread | IV Amber Lamp | V First Rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oud wood | heart | not used | heart | base | not used |
| Rose | heart | heart | not used | not used | not used |
| Saffron | top | not used | top | not used | not used |
| Sandalwood | base | base | not used | not used | base |
| Amber accord | base | not used | base | base | not used |
| White musk accord | not used | base | not used | not used | base |
| Frankincense | not used | not used | not used | heart | heart |
| Cardamom | not used | top | top | top | not used |
| Vetiver | not used | not used | base | not used | base |
| Neroli | not used | top | not used | not used | top |
A drop, not a spray
Draw a drop along the inside of the wrist, and one behind each ear. An oil sits close to the skin and is noticed by the people who come near, not across a room. Cloth holds scent too: a touch on a cuff or a collar. An oil can mark silk, so try a hidden spot first, and try a little on a small patch of skin before you wear it widely. Never on broken skin.
Every blend is made in three sizes, measured the way attars have long been sold: a quarter tola (3 ml), a half tola (6 ml) and a tola (12 ml).
TOLA TOH-la. A Hindi and Urdu measure, a little under 12 grams.iv · Layer II
How a blend is made
Weighed, steeped and rested; tried on the wrist, then filled.
Weigh
Each material weighed on a small scale into sandalwood oil, the base notes first, the top notes last.
Steep
Saffron threads and a few chips of oud wood steeped whole in warm oil for a week, then strained.
Rest
Sealed in amber glass and left in the dark for four weeks, so the notes settle into one another.
Try
A drop on a paper blotter and on the wrist, smelt over a day from top to base, before anything is changed.
Fill
By hand, with a glass rod, into small cut-glass vials, each labelled with the blend, the date it was filled and its notes.
One knot on the strap for each day. Most of the making is waiting.
Nothing in our attars is alcohol: the notes are carried in oil, which is why they sit close to the skin and are worn in drops, not sprays.
v · Layer III
The wood itself
Pale wood that sealed a wound and darkened with its resin.
Oud is the dark heartwood of the agar tree (Aquilaria). Where the tree has been wounded it seals itself with resin, and over years the pale wood turns dark and heavy with it.
OUD OOD. Arabic for wood; here, the dark heartwood of the agar tree.We distil some of it for the attars and sell the rest in pieces by weight, for warming at home. We describe each piece by what you can see and smell: how heavy it feels in the hand, how dark it is, how it smells when warmed.
To warm it, use low heat and never a flame: a sliver on an electric burner, or on a coal that has greyed over. A small piece is plenty for a room.
vi · Layer III
Smoke for guests
Heat it gently, never flame; the room will slowly change.
Bakhoor is wood that has been taught to smell of something more. We take chips of agarwood and other woods, steep them for days in our oils with resin (rose, saffron, sandalwood, and an amber accord of labdanum and benzoin), then let them dry slowly until the scent is held in the grain.
BAKHOOR ba-KHOOR. Arabic. Wood chips steeped in oils and resin, then dried, for burning.It is burned with heat, not flame. Set a few pieces on an electric burner, or on a coal that has been lit and allowed to grey over, and wait. The first smoke is thin and a little sharp; after a minute it softens, and the room begins to change.
In many homes, Arab, Persian and South Asian alike, the mabkhara is carried from room to room before guests arrive, then passed among them once they are seated, so each person can let the smoke settle in a sleeve or the fold of a scarf. We do the same in our sitting room, and we pass it last, when you are ready to go.
MABKHARA MAB-kha-ra. Arabic. The burner.Never leave a lit burner alone, and keep it away from curtains and children’s hands.
vii · Layer III
A finer layer
Each pass lays a finer layer inside the last, the way a craftsman works a panel.
Layer IV of IV
Come and sit
Low cushions, a tray of dates; the burner lit before you come.
Our shop in Adelaide has a sitting room at the back instead of a counter. There are low cushions along the walls, cardamom coffee in a brass dallah with a dish of dates, and a burner lit before you arrive. Come without a plan. We will put a drop of anything on a paper blotter or on the back of your hand and wait while it settles, and nobody will hurry you to choose. The last thing we do, as in many homes, is pass the mabkhara round.
DALLAH DAL-la. Arabic. A coffee pot with a long, curved spout.Write to us first and we will set a time. Write to us
ix · Layer IV
Write to us
Tell us what you would smell; we will write back with a time.
x · Layer IV
The coal goes out
The coal has gone to grey ash; the smoke stays in your sleeve.
- OUD WOOD
- ROSE
- SAFFRON
- SANDALWOOD
- AMBER ACCORD (LABDANUM AND BENZOIN)
- WHITE MUSK ACCORD
- FRANKINCENSE
- CARDAMOM
- VETIVER
- NEROLI
- and the smoke of bakhoor
Words on this page
- GIRIH
- gi-REH. A Persian word for a knot.
- BAYT
- Said like bite. In Arabic and Persian a couplet is a bayt, which also means a house. We open with one.
- MISRA
- mis-RAH. One half of a couplet; in Arabic, also one leaf of a double door.
- ATTAR
- AT-ar. A perfume carried in oil; the word came to English through Persian and Urdu.
- TOLA
- TOH-la. A Hindi and Urdu measure, a little under 12 grams.
- OUD
- OOD. Arabic for wood; here, the dark heartwood of the agar tree.
- BAKHOOR
- ba-KHOOR. Arabic. Wood chips steeped in oils and resin, then dried, for burning.
- MABKHARA
- MAB-kha-ra. Arabic. The burner.
- DALLAH
- DAL-la. Arabic. A coffee pot with a long, curved spout.
This page is set in Aboreto, a wide engraved capital, and Amiri, a Latin face drawn to sit beside Arabic naskh. Its couplets are set the way a book of poems is set, each in two halves facing each other across the middle, and the smoke that rises between the first two is drawn by your graphics card, thread by thread, as you watch. The pattern in the margins is made in your browser from girih tiles, laid finer three times; it is not copied from any building, and it is showing 1,000 tiles now. The page uses no Arabic lettering.
Every couplet on this page has its door standing open.
xi · Layer IV