Dar ul-Funun (Persia)


Dar ul-Funun, established in 1851, was the first modern university and modern institution of higher learning in Iran.

Introduction

Founded by Amir Kabir, then the royal vizier to Nasereddin Shah, the Shah of Persia, Dar al-Funun originally was conceived as a polytechnic to train upper-class Persian youth in medicine, engineering, military science, and geology. It was similar in scope and purpose to American land grant colleges like Purdue and Texas A&M. Like them, it developed and expanded its mission over the next hundred years, eventually becoming the University of Tehran.
The institute was planned by the Iranian educated Mirza Reza Mohandes, and built by the architect Muhammad Taqi Khan Memar-Bashi under the supervision of the Qajar prince Bahram Mirza. Facilities such as an assembly hall, a theater, library, cafeteria, and a publishing house were built for the institute. In 1930, the building was destroyed by Mirza Yahya Khan Qaragozlu, then Minister of Education, and rebuilt based on a Russian engineering design.
Many parts of the institute were later on absorbed and merged into the newly establishing Tehran University. The Faculty of Medicine for example, was particularly the successor to the Dar ul-Funun Department of Medicine, established in 1851, which had become the School of Medicine in 1919.
The elite school was training 287 students by 1889, and had graduated 1100 students by 1891. During this time, the faculty consisted of 16 European, and 26 Iranian professors.

Notable alumni