Hidden among the maze of dark passageways of Tangiers' notorious marketplace is a doorway to a tiny shop, no bigger than a closet, really. International film stars, European royalty, fashion cognoscenti, and big-city journalists have passed through this doorway.
For it is here that Suleiman Madini sells the perfume essences of centuries-old family tradition. Outside, veiled women haggle prices over blaring Moroccan music, children push, and men deal. Inside, the spirit rejoices to the heady mix of natural, essential fragrances meant to invoke the dreams of angels.
The history of the Madini oils begins with the Hariris, an eminent Saudi Arabian family who were perfumers and silk traders for centuries in the city of Medina. When Moulay Hafid, a Moroccan sultan, married into the Hariri family around the turn of the century, several members of the Hariri family came to Tangiers, Morocco, where they established an enduring reputation for producing the finest perfumes. The centuries-old tradition they represented flourished in Morocco, which is known for its excellent and varied flora. In the Madini family, the art of creating, blending, and applying essential oils is handed down from generation to generation.
Perfume essences are undiluted, compounded perfumes. Because of this, they are much thicker in consistency than diluted perfumes. That is why they are also called perfume oils. The oils are prepared to flow easily, and our containers are designed to deliver a single drop. Our perfume essences are the work of a perfumer, working in the centuries-old Sufi tradition of perfumery. This tradition is passed on from father to son and requires years of diligent apprenticeship.
Perfume essences are entirely different from so-called "essential oils" which are simply the extracted oils of a particular substance, usually botanical. These lack the sophistication and balance of an artfully blended perfume. And needless to say, the Madini perfume essences are also a world apart from cheap perfumes created from synthetic chemicals in imitation of various commercial fragrances. The alternative is the richness and subtlety of the Madini Oils. As you educate your nose in the wide range of tastes and moods the oils express, you will be tapping into the artistry, knowledge, and experience of a family lineage fourteen generations old. This kind of quality can only come from the achievement of perfection in the perfumer's art.
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