Dar ol-Fonoon

Dar al-Funun (Persian: دارالفنون), established in 1851, was the first modern institution of higher learning in Persia. Founded by Amir Kabir, then the royal vizier to Nasereddin Shah, the Shah of Iran, 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 Qajari prince Bahram...