In the 1830s Edward William Lane found the ’attár, the druggist and perfumer, among the shopkeepers of Cairo, and described guests sprinkled with rose-water and perfumed with the smoke of aloes-wood and benzoin as they left a house.
This is an afternoon at a bench with the raw materials themselves: weighed, blended into something that is yours, and written down so you can make it again. It pairs with the kyphi afternoon at Edfu, which comes at the same subject from the temple wall.
Egypt’s jasmine comes from the Delta, around Gharbia. From June to November it is picked by hand from around midnight until a few hours after dawn, because that is when the flowers are fully open.
You leave with a formula, not a souvenir bottle: something you can make again at home.
How it could run
A proposed shape, confirmed with you when it is arranged.
- Begin with Lane’s Cairo: the ’attár among the shopkeepers, rose-water for the parting guest.
- At the bench, smell each raw material on its own before anything is mixed.
- Weigh parts into a blend, and write the formula down.
- Leave with the blend and the page that lets you make it again.
