Al Haramain

Al Haramain is a fragrance house founded in 1970 and headquartered in the United Arab Emirates [1]. It specialises in Arabian perfumery built around oud, alongside attar, bakhoor and Western-style eau de parfum, and reports a catalogue of more than a thousand fragrances. The company remains active, with new releases through 2024 and a retail and online presence across the Gulf and beyond.

The name refers to the two holiest mosques in Islam, the Masjid Al-Haram in Makkah and the Masjid Al-Nabawi in Madinah. That religious and regional identity sits at the centre of how the house presents itself: a traditional Middle Eastern perfumer that has grown from a small trading operation into a multi-country manufacturer and retailer.

⚑ Thinner sourcing. The article relies largely on the brand's own statements (T2–T3). Glowpedia is seeking independent sources.

The company traces its beginnings to Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia, where its founder, Kazi Abdul Haque, ran a perfume trading business with a handful of stores [1]. According to the company, Haque was drawn to perfumery by the aroma of oud in Makkah, and his son later visited distilleries in Ta'if and developed the idea of taking these traditions to a wider market. The house records its founding as 1970, a date repeated in its slogan "Best in Fragrance since 1970" and in independent coverage [6].

There is a geographic split in how the brand describes its own origins. Its about page lists Ajman in the UAE as the present headquarters [1], while its history page states that Al Haramain "was established in the Holy Makkah, Saudi Arabia" and places the modern headquarters in Dubai, with the factory in Ajman [3]. The two accounts are consistent once separated in time: the business began in Saudi Arabia, while manufacturing, headquarters and brand identity are now UAE-based.

From its Saudi origins, Al Haramain expanded into the UAE and built one of the larger perfume manufacturing operations in the Middle East, which the company gives as roughly 16,215 square metres, with showrooms opening across the Middle East, the Far East, Europe and the United States [3]. Day-to-day development has been associated with a second-generation leader, Mohammed Mahtabur Rahman, also known as Nasir, named on the company's about and history pages.

More recent activity has centred on the Amber Oud line. Amber Oud was launched in 2018 [10], followed by the women's-and-men's Junoon Oud in 2023 and, in 2024, the Amber Oud Gold Edition along with line extensions such as Amber Oud Aqua Dubai and Amber Oud Dubai Night [11]. By the 2020s the company described itself as having more than fifty years in business.

Al Haramain positions itself as a heritage Arabian perfumery house centred on oud and traditional attar. Its stated aim, in the company's words, is "to be a world leader in fine perfumery … bringing them serenity through the medium of fragrance," and it frames scent as something with the power to stir emotion and create a sense of calm [1]. The house lists its core values as ethical conduct, quality, integrity, dignity and courage, and uses the tagline "Trusted by Generations, Loved by All."

In practice the catalogue spans both Arabic and French- or Western-style perfumes, perfume oils, agarwood, bakhoor, oud and dehnal oud. Independent perfume coverage tends to place the brand in the affordable Arabian and oud niche rather than at the price of Western prestige houses.

Oud, the resinous agarwood at the heart of much Middle Eastern perfumery, is the brand's signature material and has its own dedicated section on the company's site. Al Haramain says it sources agarwood from locations including the jungles of Cambodia and from private merchant collections, selecting only wood "at their peak" and testing each batch by burning chips before approval [5]. Its most associated line is Amber Oud, an oriental woody fragrance; other recurring names include the Amber Oud Gold Edition, the Junoon collection and L'Aventure.

The company also describes a social dimension to its oud sourcing, saying it pays a fair price to local collectors and employs more than a hundred indigenous craftsmen at its perfumery so that the wider oud-collecting community shares in the trade.

Al Haramain's public recognition is largely regional. Its achievements page lists exhibition and participation certificates and charity acknowledgements dating from the mid-1990s to 2016, including the Global Village 20th Season Award in 2016, an Exhibitor's Diploma from InterCharm 2011, and participation in the 6th Beauty Eurasia exhibition in Istanbul in 2010 [4]. These are predominantly local UAE exhibition and civic certificates rather than international beauty-industry awards.

In press, the brand was the subject of a 2023 Gulf News feature on its history and product range; the article was labelled advertiser's content, making it a sponsored rather than independent piece [6].

Al Haramain is active. The company reports nearly 100 stores in the Gulf region and a presence in more than 100 countries, operates an online store, and continued to release new fragrances in 2024 [1]. Its most recent clearly dated activity is that 2024 run of Amber Oud editions, and its social channels remain in use [11].