GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
Beauty and the history of continents . . 7
Bewitching beauty and language's secret formulas . . 9
Beauty and beauties: cultural definitions of beauty . . 11
GENERAL INDEX . . see volume 5 

DAR AL-ISLAM . . 14
Beauty in Paradise . . 16
The zarif . . 20
Manifold beauty . . 22
Watching your figure . . 25
Pleasantly plump . . 26
From medical care to body care . . 28
All the fragrances on earth . . 32
Henna, the tree of paradise . . 34
The body as social record . . 37
Faith in cleanliness . . 38
Baghdad, capital of high fashion . . 40
Hair, here and there . . 42
Heroic moustaches and lion-like noses . . 44

MEDIEVAL EUROPE . . 46
Beauty in His image . . 48
Glorifying the body . . 54
No one wants to grow old! . . 56
Between divine and diabolical . . 59
Hair control . . 62
De ornatu mulierum . . 64
Emblem of ugliness . . 66

JAPAN, FROM HEIAN TO EDO . . 68
The flower experience . . 70
Miyabi, poets of elegance . . 74
The Tale of Genji . . 76
Wabi or the aesthetics of virtual nothingness . . 78
Ukiyo, the floating world . . 80
The shadow zone . . 83
The drama of appearances . . 85
Iki, the splendour of one hundred shades of grey . . 89
Women seen from the back . . 91
From white to black . . 92

CHINA, FROM MING TO QING . . 94
Beauty as a binding ideal . . 96
Gu Mei, the courtesan ideal . . 100
The ghost of the Peony Pavilion . . 103
Casual expressions of idle feeling . . 105
Hua dian flower power . . 108
Scents of desire . . 110
Willowy as a willow . . 113
The social pyramid . . 116
Rebels and headgear . . 118

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA . . 120
The anatomy of beauty . . 122
Beauty is the promise of happiness . . 126
Bagnon, worshipping male beauty . . 127
Evocative forms . . 128
The necessity of ugliness . . 132
The body as canvas . . 134
Skin drawings . . 137
The spirit of beauty . . 140

RENAISSANCE ITALY . . 144
Sacred and profane beauty . . 146
Secrets and experimentations . . 152
Recipes for beauty . . 156
A window on the heart . . 159
Under the lady's chignon . . 162
The savage body . . 164

THE MUGHAL EMPIRE . . 166
From splendour to sensuality . . 168
A pure state of beauty . . 172
Reflecting paradise . . 175
Dress as microcosm . . 178
Strange scents . . 181
The treasury of the world . . 184

THE GOLDEN CENTUARY OF SPAIN . . 186
Extravagance meets asceticism . . 188
The peerless Dulcinea . . 194
The world's a stage . . 196
Black sun . . 199
Moral beauty . . 202

LOW COUNTRIES, GOLDEN AGE . . 206
The muse in all her finery . . 208
Baroque opulence . . 213
Pale and cool . . 216
The stuff of femininity . . 219
Venus: powerful persuader . . 222
Clothes make the man... and vice versa . . 224
Painted women, women painters . . 228

FRANCE, FROM THE SUN KING TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT . . 230
Artful beauty . . 232
Solar power . . 235
Hairdresser's kingdom . . 238
Noblesse oblige! . . 241
The colour of rank . . 244
The love of artifice . . 247
Eloquent curves . . 249
Revolutionary smiles . . 252
A riot of fragrance . . 254