Ajmal

Founded 1951 · Founded in India; headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates · Haji Ajmal Ali

Ajmal is the oldest of the Arabic houses in this catalogue and the only one with plantations of its own: it grows its own agarwood in Assam, distils its own oud and controls the chain from tree to bottle. That is the difference between a perfumer and a raw-material house that also perfumes.

History

Haji Ajmal Ali founded the house in 1951 in India, in the heart of Assam, where the agar tree that yields oud grows. The operation moved to Dubai in the decades that followed and from there became one of the largest perfumers in the Gulf, with hundreds of its own shops. What sets it apart is not the catalogue but the integration: where almost every Gulf house buys its oud, Ajmal grows it, distils it and sells it — to third parties as well. Its Western perfumery came later and is considerably more conventional than its tradition.

Iconic models

Amber Wood
A woody amber; its most popular name outside the Gulf.
Dahn al Oudh
Pure oud oil distilled by the house. The product that explains what Ajmal really is.
Aristocrat
From its Western spray line, more conventional than the rest.

Worth knowing

Ajmal grows its own agar trees in Assam. Almost no other Gulf perfumer does this: they buy distilled oud from third parties and compose on top of it.