Acknowledgements
Introduction

A Tale of Three Cities: The Intellectual Life of Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani

1. Introduction: Infinite Pages of a Revolution
2. Kerman: The Making of an Intellectual Dissident
2.1. Birth and Lineage
2.2. Formative Environment of Kerman
2.3. Education and Teachers
2.4. Conflict and Flight
3. Isfahan: Between Patronage and Peril
3.1. Reformist Circles and Court Intrigues
3.2. Tehran Interlude and the Road to Exile
4. Istanbul: Between Flourishing and Perishing
4.1. Sympathy With the Azali Cause: Cyprus, Marriage, and Melancholy
4.2. The Birth of an Author: Rezvan and Early Literary Experiments
4.3. Three Mirrors of Azali Thought: Hekmat-e Nazari (Theoretical Philosophy), Haftad-o-do Mellat (Seventy-Two Sects), and Hasht Behesht (Eight Paradises)
4.4. Journalism and Reform: Akhtar and the Tobacco Crisis
4.5. Recognition and Stability
4.6. In the Circle of Dissidents: Mirza Habib Esfahani
4.7. Azali Exposure and Exclusion in Exile
4.8. Reading the Enlightenment
4.9. In the Circle of Dissidents: Mirza Malkom Khan and Seyyed Jamal al-Din Afghani
4.10. Extradition and Aftermath

The Fading Shadow of God: On Atheology and the Death of the Sacred in Takvin va Tashri

1. The Genealogy of Disbelief: From Ilhad to Atheology
2. The Poetics of Heterodoxy: Literature as Humanist Resistance
3. The Clerical Hegemony of Safavid Shi'ism
4. The Fracturing of the Divine Order: Literature and the Poetics of Denial
5. The Birth of the Intellectual Amid the Twilight of Qajar Absolutism
6. Theoretical Framework: The Unthought and the Logosphere
7. Reading Takvin va Tashri: The Genesis of Fear and the Contract of Religion
8. Prophecy, Power, and the Social Contract
9. The Tongue of Nature: Prophecy Without Revelation
10. The Fusion of Horizons: Kermani in Dialogue with Durkheim, Montesquieu, and Ibn Khaldun
11. Concluding Remarks: Toward a Natural Atheology

Takvin va Tashri

The First Ray: On the Weakness and Infirmity of Man, and the Intensity of His Helplessness and Dependence
The Second Ray: On the Formation of Human Societies After the State of Fear
The Third Ray: On the Trajectory of Man in His Original Course
The Fourth Ray: On the Organisation of Man's Livelihood Within Society
The Fifth Ray: On the Emergence of Sciences, Arts, and Crafts in Accordance With the Needs and Exigencies of Human Life
The Sixth Ray: On the Origin of Language and Speech
The Seventh Ray: On the Origin of Script and Writing, and the Invention of Numerals and Letters
The Eighth Ray: On the Nature of Poetry, Music, Painting, and Related Arts
The Ninth Ray: On the Art of Medicine, Veterinary Practice, and Surgery
The Tenth Ray: On War, Its Instruments, and the Enhancement of Martial Power
The Eleventh Ray: On the Relations and Exchanges of Estates, Commerce, Cultivation, and Industry
The Twelfth Ray: On the Origin of the Science of Astronomy, Judicial Astrology, the Horoscope, and the Celestial Tables
The Thirteenth Ray: On the Origins of Geometry, Arithmetic, Jarr al-Asqal (the Science of Moving and Balancing Heavy Bodies), and Avfaq (Magic Squares or Numerical Talismanic Tables)
The Fourteenth Ray: On the Origins of Seafaring and Other Western Discoveries
The Sixteenth Ray: On Prophetic Power, Kingship, Wisdom, and the Formation of the Civilised World
The Seventeenth Ray: On Man in Pursuit of First Causes, and the Inquiry into and Division of Philosophy
The Eighteenth Ray: On the Manner of the Emergence of Prophets, Priests, and the Talmud Among the Israelites
The Nineteenth Ray: On the Manner of Worship and the Origins of Idolatry

Glossary
Bibliography