KARACHI: There is a row of attar sellers near Eidgah on M.A. Jinnah Road who have been there since the late 1940s.

The oldest of them, Inshaallah Mashaallah Perfumers, opened in 1949 but its story doesn’t really begin from here. “We were into the attar-making and selling business even before the partition of the Indian subcontinent. But then we moved the family business to Karachi,” says Mr Sanaullah, the shop owner surrounded by all kinds of attar in his big and airy shop. About the name of the shop, he smiles and says that his grandfather was named Mohammad Mashaallah and granduncle Mohammad Inshaallah.

“Attar is more popular among Muslims than regular perfumes as they are oil-based while most foreign perfumes are alcohol-based,” Mr Sanaullah explains.

Pocket attar sprays.

Still these days, many attar shops, especially those in big malls, house oil-based perfumes but with similar fragrances as some popular French perfumes have. Samina, a customer, says that when she can’t afford to buy the expensive branded perfumes such as Cool Water, Hugo, Bvlgari, Chanel or Clive Christian, she goes for the next best option, replicated fragrances in attar. “But I have to be careful not to dab on too much or they’ll leave a stain on my dress due to being oil-based,” she says.

“The difference in price proves to be a major decision-maker for the customers,” says Mr Khalid at neighbouring Saeed Ghani. “A 100ml bottle of branded foreign perfume would cost you Rs10,000 or more and a 36ml bottle of attar will be around Rs1,000 only,” he says.” Then attar is stronger and more durable. The alcohol-based perfumes don’t last very long and evaporate easily, but that’s not the case with oil-based attars, fragrances of which linger for days. Because of this you may also finish a perfume bottle in a month while the attar bottle will last you four months, at least” he says.

Loban-daans with tiny holes for emitting fragrant smoke. & Attar in shops is preserved in clear glass reagent bottles until transferred to pretty little bottles for customers.

“Still, we don’t make the attar replicas here. They are mostly also imported,” says Mr Sanaullah.

Among the most popular local attar are musk, amber and sandalwood. “These can be expensive or cheap depending on their quality,” he says. “They are also used in aroma therapy,” he adds.

Besides the attar, Inshaallah Mashaallah also sells loban-daans or jars similar to urns but with holes in them for letting the smoke from burning wood chips dipped in fragrant oils with charcoal escape. It makes for an exotic atmosphere on social occasions especially milads.

Old and famous attar shops along a fragrant path down M.A. Jinnah Road near Eidgah.

At another shop, the shopkeeper provides some information on the pretty little attar bottles. “We mostly order them from China,” he says. “We select from several designs in catalogues and order them. Still in the shops we preserve the attar in clear glass reagent bottles like we have in laboratories,” he says.

Meanwhile, at the Saeed Ghani shop, there is more stuff on offer besides attar such as goat milk soaps and shampoos, creams, oil, henna, etc. “We have 42 outlets most of which are our own but we have franchises, too,” says Mr Khalid.

But Inshaallah Mashaallah doesn’t believe in franchises as such. “We haven’t expanded our business to cosmetics as yet. Besides, we do not franchise as we want strict quality control and opening more branches requires more manpower for supervision so we are happy with our shop here at Eidgah. Everyone knows where we are located and they come here to buy attar from us all the time,” Mr Sanaullah concludes.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2014