Khalouq

Khalouq was the scent of the Sacred House.

One of the key responsibilities the Caliphs and Sultans of the past bore with honour was the scenting of the Holy Ka’bah in Makkah. They spared no expense in scenting the blessed sanctuary, and sometimes when I do the math converting the material costs from their time to ours, they were spending in the tens of millions if not more in scenting the Holy Ka’bah. They ensured the holy sanctuary had the most fragrant of scents permeating it. It has been narrated in Akhbar Makkah that Abdullah Ibn Al Zubayr had Khalouq smeared on the mortar when he renovated the holy sanctuary.

The Ka’bah began to receive full scale olfactory patronage under the rule of the Umayyad caliph Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān (661-680), who was “the first to perfume the Kabah with Kḫalouq and incense,”. He had apportioned for the sanctuary a daily ration of perfume dispatching incense and perfume for it during the Hajj pilgrimage season and during the sacred month of Rajab.

Other reports pay tribute to ‘Abd Allah ibn Al Zubayr for starting the tradition of scenting the Kabah. Ibn Al Zubayr ruled the Ḥijaz in opposition to the Umayyads between 680 and 692 and was devoted to the up keeping of the Holy Sanctuary as is supported by several traditions.

Beyond claims to his being the “first” to do so, sources often more generally associate Ibn Al Zubayr’s veneration and patronage of the Ka’bah with his care for the building’s scents. He would reportedly “perfume the Ka’bah with a pound of incense every day, and two pounds on Fridays” and  “he perfumed the Ka’bah such that whoever entered the Ḥaram encountered its scent,” suggesting the odour permeated the whole of Makkah’s sacred territory. Such extensive perfuming activities similarly feature in many accounts of Ibn Al Zubayr’s famous reconstruction of the Ka’bah. In addition to the fine building materials commissioned for this project, reports comment upon the aromatisation of the entirety of the Ka’bah during and/or after its construction such as ‘when Ibn al-Zubayr finished building the Ka’bah, he perfumed it with khalouq from inside and outside and top to bottom’. 

The prominent place of perfume and incense in ibn Al Zubayr’s activities testifies to the significance of scent in early patronage of the holy Sanctuary. It is reported in Siyar Alam Al Nubala ʿAbd Allāh [b. Al Zubayr] was the first to cover the Ka’bah with silk brocade, and he perfumed the Kabah such that whoever entered the Ḥaram encountered its scent.”

The scenting tradition that was established by Ibn Al Zubayr and Mu’awiyaht was continued by the Abbasids and other dynasties that followed. It is narrated in Akhbar Makkah the Caliph Al Mahdi (775-785) led the Hajj pilgrimage in the year 777. When in Makkah he sat by the Mosque and by his order the attendants of the Ka’bah climbed upon its roof with bottles of perfume pouring it down the walls covering it from top to bottom and inside-out with fragrance.

The perfuming tradition of the Ka’bah continues till today.

This is the significance of Khalouq in our history. For the first time in modern history, similar to our recreation of Al Ghaliyah I & II and Teeb I & II we bring to the modern world one of the most significant scents from the golden ages of Islamic perfumery, The KHALOUQ, arguably the first scent with which the Ka’bah was perfumed. This is truly a work of art, a piece of our history in a bottle.

Here is where I usually speak about the ingredients, but as the saying goes a wise man learns from his mistakes. In the past when sharing ingredients other vendors have proceeded to imitate my work, whilst imitation is the best form of flattery in this instance I will be keeping the components under wrap and will not speak about the secret formulas. However I will speak about the scent;

When you smell Khalouq the first feeling it conjures is a realisation that this smell is from a different time and age, from a different place, it is otherworldly. For those who know the significance of the Holy Ka’bah will immediately appreciate why such a perfume was dedicated to the Sacred House. There is serenity and opulence in the one whiff, Khalouq is beautiful, it carries the beauty of all the rarest of ingredients that are employed in it, but also more, the method in which these ingredients are combined brings a new whole that gracefully carries the individually of its parts and the seamless transitions. Khalouq brings forth a magnificent olfactory experience, Khalouq is a piece of heaven on earth.