Last updated: 2026-05-27 | Author: SilkwayOud editorial, reviewed by Dr. Liu Mengxi, historian
Quick answer: Agarwood from southern China reached the Arabian Peninsula via Silk Road caravans by the 7th century. By the Tang dynasty (618-907), Maoming was an imperial source. The Damascus distillation breakthrough of the 9th century turned Chinese wood into Arab oud oil. The route went quiet during the 20th-century collapse of wild Aquilaria stocks and is reopening now through cultivated Maoming.
The history of oud is, in large part, the history of one trade route. The wood grew in southern China and northern India. The end customers lived in Arabia, Persia, and the Levant. Between them sat 5,000 kilometers of mountains, deserts, and middlemen.
7th century: oud enters Arab medicine and ritual
Pre-Islamic Arabian poetry already mentions imported wood from the east. After the rise of Islam, the hadith literature includes references to bakhoor and oud as part of household and worship practice. The early Islamic caliphates imported oud through Yemen and Oman ports, fed by Indian and Chinese supply chains.
Tang dynasty Maoming as imperial source
By the 8th century, Maoming (then within the Lingnan administrative region) was sending tribute agarwood to the Tang court. Imperial records describe shipments of chen xiang (??, "sinking fragrance") from Guangdong. The same wood was being purchased by Arab merchants in Guangzhou ports for the return journey west.
The Damascus distillation breakthrough
In the 9th century, Arab perfumers in Damascus and Baghdad developed water-driven distillation of agarwood, producing the first concentrated oud oils. The Persian physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037) wrote about agarwood medicinally in The Canon of Medicine. This was the moment "oud" as we know it (the oil, not the wood) entered the global lexicon.
Timeline
| Period | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Pre-7th century | Arabian Peninsula imports agarwood through Yemen ports |
| 7th century | Hadith literature records bakhoor in household practice |
| 8th century | Tang dynasty receives Maoming agarwood as imperial tribute |
| 9th century | Damascus and Baghdad perfumers develop distilled oud oil |
| 11th century | Ibn Sina documents agarwood in Canon of Medicine |
| 13-16th c. | Ottoman court use, peak demand in Istanbul, Damascus, Cairo |
| 1500s | Ming dynasty Bencao Gangmu (Li Shizhen) catalogs agarwood pharmacology |
| 19th c. | Wild stocks decline in Southeast Asia |
| 1995 | Aquilaria listed under CITES Appendix II |
| 1985-2025 | Maoming cultivation program rebuilds legitimate Chinese supply |
20th century collapse and the smuggling era
Through the late 1800s and the 1900s, wild Aquilaria populations were stripped across India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Borneo. By 1995, the species was on CITES Appendix II. The grey market grew, the legitimate market shrank, and prices for verified oud tripled. Read our deep dive on CITES certification for the post-1995 regulatory shift.
Why Maoming is reopening the route
The 40-year Maoming cultivation program started in 1985 created the first scalable, traceable, CITES-compliant source of Aquilaria sinensis in modern history. The wood is the same species Tang merchants exported. The route from Maoming to the Gulf is, for the first time since the 1800s, fully legal, traceable, and supplied.
What you buy from us is not a recreation of the silk road trade. It is the same trade, restarted under modern paperwork. See our full 40-year Maoming story for the cultivation program detail.
Frequently asked questions
Did the original Silk Road actually carry oud?
Yes, both as raw wood (overland and maritime) and later as distilled oil. Tang dynasty trade records and Abbasid customs records confirm both directions.
Is Chinese oud the "original" oud?
Aquilaria sinensis is native to southern China and was traded west by the 7th century. Indian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese ouds developed in parallel. There is no single "original" species; there are several regional traditions.
Why did the trade collapse?
Wild over-harvesting through the 19th and 20th centuries plus the breakdown of organized cultivation in southern China during certain political periods. CITES regulation in 1995 effectively closed the wild trade.
Can I buy verified Silk Road-era oud today?
Almost certainly not. Authentic 19th-century or earlier oud is museum-tier and rarely surfaces at auction. What is on the market labeled "Silk Road era" is overwhelmingly false claims.
Related reading: Maoming 40 Years of Cultivation | What Is Aquilaria sinensis? | Chinese Oud vs Indian Oud
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