Beauty in Arabic Culture

Beauty in Arabic Culture

Aesthetics, Arab
Civilization, Arab
Islamic civilization

"Doris Behrens-Abouseif's book provides a panorama of the concepts of beauty in classical and post-classical Arabic culture through the 15th century, drawing on Arabic texts from philosophy, theology, mysticism, poetry, and literary criticism as well as historiographic sources and tales from the Thousand and One Nights. Behrens-Abouseif elucidates the ways in which beauty was measured by the degree of pleasure it elicited in the recipient, an attitude that anticipates modernity in both East and West."--Jacket.

Doris Behrens-Abouseif

Princeton, NJ : Markus Wiener Publishers

Series: Princeton series on the Middle East.

The Religious Approach -- The Image of the World -- The Koran and the Universe -- Ghazali, the Sufi Way, and the Symbolism of Light -- Al-Ghazali -- The Sufi Way -- The Symbolism of Light -- Secular Beauty and Love -- Proportion, Harmony, and the Psychological Factor -- Nature and Artifice -- Fauna -- Human Beauty -- Love -- Music and Belles Lettres -- Context -- Literary Criticism -- Originality -- Imagination -- The Visual Arts -- The Status of the Arts -- The Significance of Artistic Beauty -- The Decorative Themes -- Images -- Calligraphy -- Arabesque and Geometry -- Architecture and Decoration -- Unity, Diversity, and Transmission of Knowledge -- Regalia and Luxury -- Building or Architecture? -- Literature in European Languages -- Literature in Arabic.

Book