Arash Ghajarjazi received his PhD from the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University. His work deals with the relations between Islam, sciences, and media technologies in the Middle East from the 19th century onwards. More broadly, trained both as a cultural analyst and a historian, he explores how Islamic traditions have evolved in and as media. He approaches histories of Muslim material cultures and ideas together. His work seeks a balance between historical contextualisation and philosophical conceptualisation.

• List of figures Transliteration table Acknowledgements Preface INTRODUCTION A SHORT OVERVIEW OF EARLY REFORMS THROUGH THE LENS OF D.R AL-FONUN ABSURD AS THE LIMIT TO MEDIATION MEANING, PARADOX, AND THE ABSURD IN ISLAM: PUSHING SHAHAB AHMED TO THE LIMIT NOTES ON THE METHODS 1. RESURRECTIONAL MEDIATIONS SHI.A ESCHATOLOGY AND PHOTOGRAPHY THEOLOGRAPHIC MEDIATION IN RESURRECTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE LIMIT: FROM MIMESIS TO EVIDENTIALITY A WORLD OF MEANING IN THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE 2. MOURNING MEDIATIONS TA.ZIYE PERFORMANCES AND MILITARY SONIC TECHNIQUES MILITARY SOUNDS THE CULTURAL INFLUENCE OF THE MILITARY TA.ZIYE: A SHORT HISTORY CUEING AND ORGANISING: TA.ZIYE RECONSTRUCTED P THE AFFECTIVE MODE OF TA.ZIYE 3. THERAPEUTIC MEDIATIONS SHI.A MEDICAL IMAGINATION AND CHOLERA CHOLERA IN CONTEXT: MEDICAL INSTITUTIONALISATION AND AETIOLOGIES THE CASE OF CURE OF CHOLERA (.EL.J AL-WAB..) COUNTER POINTS: MODERN PROPHYLACTIC APPROACHES TO CHOLERA 4. SPIRITUAL MEDIATIONS SHI.A DEMONOLOGY AND TELEGRAPHY HAPTICS OF THE JENN SPIRITS AFTER TELEGRAPHY DIMINISHING HAPTICS IN IRANIAN SPIRITISM EPILOGUE: THE SEMIOTICS OF SHI.A ABSURDIS BIBLIOGRAPHY SOURCES STUDIES INDEX

"This is a very concise and thought-provoking study on the crossroads and intersections of Qajar intellectual history, history of sciences and medicine, religious studies, media studies and Shiite Islamic studies. It does not fit smoothly into narrow disciplinary definitions, and this is what makes it so compelling, and at times challenging. – Christoph U. Werner, University of Bamberg The manuscript is written well and is original and very compellingly argued. The subject offers brilliant insights into the ways Iranian Shi’i belief systems, habits and praxis intersect with and adjust to new technologies and appropriate their potentialities to naturalise, through ‘the absurd’, those new ways of sensing the world. – Sussan Babaie, University of London "