Kevin Pilley takes us on a trip to the wonders of Oman

Laila al Nudbi’s eyes smiled through her veil. It was a very soft sell. “This is the best, sir. This is finest quality, sir. This will make you smell better. Life will also taste better.”

The eyes laughed again, her hands holding out a small pile of semi-opaque, multi-purpose pebbles. An incense burner and a cup of aromatic “khawa” smoked on the counter beside her.

Laila’s job is supplying luxury incenses and perfumes as well as essential oils. Wearing her black “abaya” overdress or gown, she works every day at Abu Mohd (Shop No.2) in the Al-Husu market in the Al Hafa district of Salalah on the southernmost tip of the Sultanate of Oman. Like nearly everyone else in the market, Laila stocks oblong tears. Tears are very precious and necessary commodities in the Arabian peninsula.

The busy market in the narrow sandy alleys amid the town’s coconut groves is full of  “well-priced” gold and silver, “musr” turbans, “kummah” caps, “naal” sandals, copper coffee pots, ceremonial “khanjar” daggers and tailors’ shops offering fittings for gentlemen’s robes, ladies’ “thobs” and traditional velvet Dhofari dishdasha dresses.  But the shops with the baskets, jars and polythene bags of tears are the most common.  Frankincense is good for you and good for business.  It is on everyone’s shopping list  - locals as well as tourists.

Although there is also a long tradition of fishing and dhow-building, the Dhofar region - 90 minutes’ flying time and a 1,000km twelve-hour drive from the capital Muscat - has been known for centuries for the production of frankincense  The Frankincense Trail is as famous as the Silk Route. The 30kms long, 20km wide coastal belt and the mountain range not far from the Yemeni border receives the “Khareef” south-west monsoon winds from June to September. The mists blanket the region in an impenetrable pea-souper creating perfect conditions for growing frankincense trees. For four months, Dhofar becomes the coldest place in the Arabic world… before becoming the greenest.

A frankincense tree grows to no more than five metres in height. Its roots grow four metres down into “wadis” or water crossings. It takes only fourteen months for a tree to become mature. A good tree can produce up to 10kg of frankincense a year for up to thirty years.  The locals tap the trees for no charge in the ancient frankincense valleys of Hasik, Wadi Adawnib, Wadi Andhur, Ulyun and Thumrayt which was once an important stop on the caravan routes. The first place to export frankincense was Wadi Dawqah in the fourth century BC, in the days of the Queen of Sheba. Only 55 kilometres from Salalah, it is now a UNESCO protected sight.

Frankincense or Olibanum is a gum resin obtained from certain species of  “Boswellia” trees.  The trees are found in central India and the Coromandel coast as well as in Ethiopia. But the “Boswellia carterii” or “sacra” only grows in Somalia in East Africa, around Hadramaut in Yemen and in Dhofar. It is considered to produce the best frankincense and bought to fumigate houses and clothes. 

The habit of perfuming your house with “Bukhoor” is a way of Arab life.   Passing around a incense burner or “Mabkhara” is considered a mark of respect and hospitality. The type of frankincense you use can be seen as a status symbol or at least symbol of sophistication rather than wealth. In Oman, frankincense is also chewed to relieve indigestion and freshen the mouth. Public places have huge frankincense burners.

Explains local Salalah guide Naser Sulaiman Al-Mani: “An incision is made in the tree trunk and a small amount of the bark gently stripped away. The people use a sharp stone. The professional collectors use a special rod.

“The milk-like juices harden on contact with the air.  They then take three months to crystallize in to small rocks. The best time for gathering is March to September but the trees, being so healthy and fertile, are used all-year-round.

“In ancient times the large globules were packed into goat and sheepskin carriers and exported from the former capital Mirbat and Salalah to Egypt , India and China.  A museum will soon open on the site of the historic harbour at Salalah.”

Oman is modernizing itself. In Muscat the Ibadi Islam muezzins compete through megaphones from their minarets with charter jets and construction work. Paintings of the Sultan stand alongside corporate logos. The souks are competing with spas and wellness centres.  Date cultivation has given way to investment cultivation.

Oil has brought prosperity, But frankincense was the country’s first oil. It made it wealthy. The trade in frankincense is therefore a connection with the past. A past of which a proud people are very proud.

The second largest country in the Middle East, modern Oman is only 36 years old and changing rapidly. But Salalah is still the Land of Frankincense.

There are various types. From “Hougari” or “Hojary Superior” to “Nejdi” or “Nagdi”. The purest is colourless or with a green tinge. The best (silver) is white and brittle.  The cheapest is brownish-yellow. They all have a balsamic odour and a bitter aromatic taste. Frankincense burns easily and slowly with a bright white flame.  The most sought-after is breast-shaped like the union of two tears. Prices range from £1.50 to £70 per kilo.

The Arabs call African frankincense “ asli” and their own “luban”.  Hebrews refer to incense as “lebonah” or “ketoreth”.  It was used by the ancient Egyptians in religious rituals but not for embalming.  It is frequently mentioned in the Pentateuch.  The three Wise Men, of course, brought frankincense along with myrrh - which is another tree resin.

The ancients believed in its medical properties. Pliny describes it as an antidote to hemlock as well as dysentery.  Elsewhere it is used to treat for everything from leprosy to gonorrhoea.  Primitive paintings in Somalia prove that there were very early incense tree expeditions to Punt and the monuments of Persepolis confirm a regular trade in “odiferous gums” in ancient Persia as well as Baylonia and Assyria. Five times a day the priests of the Persians (Zoroastrians) burned incense on their sacred altars. Most of this was probably frankincense.

The Romans used frankinsense. They called it “mascula thura”. In India, incense sticks have been made for centuries in the Mohammaden city of Bijapur. Large incense trees are borne by the Shi’ah Moslems in the yearly procession of the Mohurrum, in commemoration of the martyrdom of the sons of Ali.

Oman remains its undoubted home and the hub of a commercial business that goes back centuries and the frankincense markets and orchards around Salalah represent a living history in a developing country. You can feel and smell it in the air everywhere.

And you can see it in the eyes of the ladies of the souk. There too you can also see the present and the future.  Once they kohled their eyes using burnt frankincense. Now it’s Chanel.

Getting there:

Oman Tourist Office TEL.0208 887 74524

Gulf Air  (www.gulfairco.com ) flies twice daily from Heathrow non-stop to Muscat. Return economy fares start at £373

Hilton (reservations.heathrow@hilton.co/ TEL. 0870 2421351) offer Time to Fly packages at most UK airports starting at £157 for one night’s accommodation and up to 15 nights’ parking.