The high-quality oud that Ali al-Woozain and Henry Jacques remember seems to be fading into the past. But there are still some old agar trees left in the forests of Southeast Asia.

Alan Mahaffey is an agarwood seller who tracks down high-grade agarwood for special customers.

He was introduced to oud as a 14-year-old when his parents worked for King Fahd bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia. The king gave Alan’s father some agarwood as a present. Alan kept it and started to burn it, small piece by small piece. That is how he fell in love with agarwood.

Meet the oud hunter

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