Beauty in the Arab World

Beauty in the Arab World

The word beauty in the English language is somewhat misleading as it normally refers to beauty in a physical sense, as in beauty of body or form. Beauty is more often used in the context of beauty, a quality of things that makes those things beautiful to see. These things may be nature, art and music. Beauty, with art and beauty, is also the central topic of aesthetics, one of the most important branches of applied philosophy. The word beauty comes from a Latin phrase that means beauty sense, which can mean “a mental or spiritual appreciation.”

In the eighteenth century the term beauty began to apply to various artistic productions, for example music. In music, beauty was not a matter of judgment, but of emotion. When a piece was very beautiful to a listener it was immediately appreciated as so, and the listener was said to have appreciated the work of art in some abstract way. But the real beauty of music was in its ability to capture an emotion in a sound, to bring it into form, to mold it, to make it beautiful.

In the present day beauty is usually defined as the ability to look good, to have a healthy complexion, to have long hair, to be attractive to others. Beauty as it relates to the arab world is more subjective than objective, and beauty is not tied to any particular criteria, including what people would call beauty. What is beautiful to me is not necessarily beautiful to you. What you consider beautiful, me, or the other arab people who look at you differently because of your race, your culture, or your faith, are always trying to find a way to be more beautiful. So, while beauty in the arab world is subjective, it still has a concrete definition: it is what makes you feel alive, what makes you smile, what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, or what makes you want to fall in love.