Darülfünun, Ottoman - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
İhsanoğlu, Ekmeleddin M.
Leiden
Brill
(1,037 words)
The Darülfünun (Dār al-Fünūn), today's Istanbul University, was envisioned by Ottoman reformers as an institution of higher learning that would be distinct from medrese s ( madrasa s), which taught traditional sciences, ulum (ʿulūm) . They coined the name, which literally means "house of sciences," to denote a modern university. The gap in technical knowledge between Western Europe and the Ottomans caused by the Industrial Revolution compelled them to create such an institution, within the framework of a public education policy inspired by the French enseignement public . The modernization of