Oud. or commonly in English Agar wood is basically the defensive sap when a certain tree is invested with a parasitic fungi
it creates a unique smell and has been used in religious ritual dating back to at least the Egyptians.. it was often used in embalming the dead (presumably because it has such a strong smell it was useful in covering up the smell of rotting flesh). It is mentioned in both the old and new testament as a religious incense.abd was still being used in Biblical times (eg John) to cover up the smell of a corpse. It’s also been used in some cultures as a breath freshener.
it’s been used by lots of cultures worldwide including the Egyptians, Zoroastrian, Judaism, Christianity and the Chinese culture. It’s nearly always been used for the purpose of covering up something bad. In more modern times the covering up something bad was reframed as being protective/ cleansing. In the occult grimoire the incense is linked to summoning good spirits to conquer evil (ie covering up something bad).
Relatively recently (well it is in the history of Agarwood) it’s been used in the Islamic culture in the same way. Obscuring something bad by being a protective smell. In Islam it’s called oud in its anglicised form) it’s heavy scent is basically useful in covering up bad smells (think of the plague -which was deemed to be caused by bad smells - and people use herbs etc to cover the bad smells)
So somehow marketing has made something useful in covering up the smell of rotting bodies as something desirable in the modern world. Go figure. So if you can’t be bothered to empty the remnants of the Sunday joint from your bin Oud, or rather Agarwood could be the kitchen spray for you, you even get 1000s of years of witchy woo testimony for its usefulness in this regard from the superstitious world.
I just use it to summon entities