History of Alghabra

Mohammed was one curious kid in his childhood, he was around eight years old when he started to help his elder brother to run his perfume store in Old Damascus in 1955. He was a great salesman! He appreciated the job he had and cared about it a lot. The journey of Mohammed Khair ALGHABRA also known as ABU AL KHAIR has started with a small modest perfumery called (Maa tarat Al-Firdous; Perfumery Of Paradise) at the corner of Souq Al-Bizuriyyah (SWEET SOUQ) in 1973. Mohammed Khair was born in 1947 in the suburb of Damascus of a conservative family. His father was a nature enthusiast who had a Damascene Arabic House filled with flowers of all kinds in the spacious garden they had. He used to distill some flowers in order to extract some natural oils.

Mohammed with a tourist customer – Old Damascus

His perfume store allegedly is one of the most vintage stores in that area. Over the years, various types of scents have been immersed in the old wooden shelves of that antique shop. The SOUQ which has various types of old Ottoman shops and inns; from Syrian spices & nuts and dried fruits shops to small perfumeries. As long as you stay in this SOUQ, you must keep smelling irresistible aromas mixed with tasty spices, it is almost magical! His passion for fragrances has made him one of the most famous “Attars” in the region. He used to making bespoke fragrances to his customers.

ANAS ALGHABRA the son of Mohammed Khair moved to Istanbul in 2013 pursuing to continue his education in Business. He had the idea of paying a tribute to his father & the city where he grew up in but firstly he needed to elaborate and make an extensive research for it. He wanted to make an exceptional perfume brand. He graduated with a degree of Business Administration. He had the same passion of his father, he embraced the profession of scents from a very young age. He was a good salesman, too! He was very keen in identifying many different scents from each others.