Ibn al-Haytam (Alhazem, b. 965, Basra) mathematician and optical theorist, argued that roughness produced beauty, and for that reason the goldsmith’s works became more lovely by having their surfaces roughened and textured.

Similarly, the interjection of a bad odor in perfume or a sour taste, however slight, in a dish, gives the perfume or the dish deliciousness. Why? Scents and tastes are inclined to go quickly from freshness to foulness. One could say that they are most delicious not at the height of freshness, but just after it, at the point of first descent.

Could it be that beauty is a matter of this subtle tipping from life into death? That what is beautiful for us is not the eternal, but the transitory? That all beauty contains that hint of death, that point of first descent?