The Fragrant Roses of Taif
Saudi Arabia’s Mountain Town of Taif is Famed for its Attar of Roses
Apr 17, 2009
Taif, one of the oldest cities in the world, is located in western Saudi Arabia, 120 kilometers from the Red Sea and 50 kilometers east of Mecca. Because it lies atop a high escarpment in the Sarawat Mountains, it is one of the few places in the desert kingdom where visitors can find pleasant temperatures all through the year.
It also happens to have the perfect conditions for growing Rosa damascena trigintipetala, the Taif Rose, famed for its unusually potent and delightful fragrance. This rose grows in the hill country outside Taif at an elevation of around 2000 meters.
The rich soil and abundant water of the area make it ideal for growing pomegranates, peaches, grapes and all kinds of vegetables as well as honey of extraordinarily fine quality. However, for centuries the richest crop of all has been its roses, known locally as ward Taifi.
Rose Harvest at Sunrise
Every year some 2000 farms around Taif produce well over one hundred million roses. These bloom throughout the month of April and local farmers must rise before the sun in order to pick the new blossoms before they open, to prevent their precious essential oils from evaporating.
Visitors willing to lend a hand are most appreciated at harvest time, but they should plan on camping nearby the night before because the harvesting must take place as early as possible. By noon, an unpicked blossom will already have lost half the oil it had at dawn.
Distillation of Rose Attar
From the fields, the roses are carried to distilleries in Taif where they are weighed and poured into large copper pots, each of which can hold ten to twenty thousand roses. Water is added and the roses are simmered for six hours. The distillation process produces droplets of essential oil which are further distilled a second time, eventually producing one Tolah of rose otto or attar, a mere one-third of an ounce, which may retail for between 500 and 800 dollars.
Rose Water in the Middle East
The production of rose water in the Middle East goes back to tenth-century Persia, from which the technique traveled to Syria. From here the Damascena Rose (probably named after Damascus) eventually reached Taif. Today’s distillation techniques, however, were not developed until much later.
According to Maud Grieve in A Modern Herbal, attar of rose was discovered in Persia around the end of the sixteenth century:
“At the wedding feast of the princess Nour-Djihan…, a canal circling the whole gardens was dug and filled with rose-water. The heat of the sun separating the water from the essential oil of the rose was observed by the bridal pair when rowing on the fragrant water. It was skimmed off and found to be an exquisite perfume.”
Uses of Rose Water
For centuries, wealthy pilgrims performing the Hajj would bring attar of rose back with them as a souvenir. The less affluent would have to be satisfied with rose water, which is sprinkled on guests at weddings and other important events. It is also an ingredient in certain Middle Eastern pastries and drinks and is used in aroma therapy to reduce nervous tension and stress.
The fragrance of the roses of Taif is extraordinary. If you’d like to produce the essence of ward taifi in your own home, see Attar of Roses by Maire Loughran.
Sources: The Roses of Taif by Michael R. Hayward, Saudi Aramco World, Nov-Dec 1997; The Roses of Taif by Susana Pint
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