Fragrance house

Ajmal

Ajmal was founded by Haji Ajmal Ali, who moved from Assam to Mumbai and began blending fragrant oils in 1951. The business developed from oud and attar trading into a family fragrance enterprise, with Ali’s sons joining within two decades. In 1976, Ajmal entered the UAE market by opening its first Dubai outlet, initially serving customers connected to its Indian oud and attar trade. Its fragrance history includes Dahn Al Oudh, launched in 1987 as an eau de parfum that presented oud to a wider global audience, and Sarah, introduced in 1995 as the brand’s first mukhallat and one of the Middle East’s largest-selling fragrances of all time. Ajmal combines Emirati identity with Indian roots, foregrounding Assam, agarwood, and the direct sourcing of oud and other natural materials. In 2001, it introduced Eternal to connect art and perfumery, modernizing the concept in 2019 as Crafted by Senses. By 2021, Ajmal was family-owned and being run by its second and third generations.