Dār al-Funūn, lit., polytechnic college, one of the earliest centres of modern education in Iran and one of the institutes founded early in Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh Qājār’s reign (1264–1313/1848–1896) by Mīrzā Taqī Khān Amīr Kabīr, a reformist grand vizier (ṣadr-i aʿẓam) of Iran. The Dār al-Funūn was primarily established to address the country’s needs in terms of military-related skills and technology, mining, medicine and other sciences. A vital result of Iran’s encounter with an industrialised western Europe, the rationale for the establi…