Irrationalities in Islam and Media in Nineteenth-Century Iran: Faces of Modernity

This book explores the cultural history of media in nineteenth-century Iran, examining religious photography, military reforms, Persian passion plays, Shi'a medicine, and the telegraphic culture. It conceptualises the problematic relationship between Sh.a Islam and 19th-century media through the lens of the first Polytechnique college in Iran, which was a media laboratory transforming the technological sphere. It is contextualised in the age of reform, a period of social, political, and military changes in the Middle East.

Format: Hardback
Length: 204 pages
Publication date: 01 August 2022
Publisher: Leiden University Press

This book explores the cultural history of media in nineteenth-century Iran, focusing on how modern techniques of representation and communication were received in the Iranian Shi'a society. The reception history is examined in religious photography, military reforms, Persian passion plays, Shi'a medicine, and the burgeoning telegraphic culture. The problematic relationship between Shii Islam and 19th-century media is conceptualized and contextualized, especially through the lens of the first Polytechnique college (Dar al-Fonun, 1851) in Iran. This college is conceptualized as a media laboratory, where the technological sphere in Iran was fundamentally transforming. It is also contextualized in the age of reform, a period in which the Middle East was undergoing widespread social, political, and military changes. Islamic (art) history, Iranian Studies, and cultural analysis form an interdisciplinary analytic framework to create new knowledge about the historical complexity of 19th-century Iran.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789087283988