The House of Sciences: The First Modern University in the Muslim World [Hardcover]

The book examines the founding of a western institution, a university, in the Ottoman Empire, a cultural environment wholly different from that of its place of origin in Western Europe.Following a string of military defeats at the end of the eighteenth century, Ottoman leaders realized that their classical traditions and institutions could not compete with Russia and the European states' technological and economic superiority.One of a series of nineteenth-century reform initiatives was the creation of a European-style university calleddar?lf?nun. From the Arabic wordsdar, meaning house, andf?nun, meaning sciences, thedar?lf?nunwould incorporate the western sciences into deeply entrenched academic traditions and institutions in an effort to bridge the gap with Europe. The completely new institution, distinct from the existing pre-modernmedreses, was modeled after the French educational system and created an infrastructure for national universities in Turkey and some of the Arab-speaking provinces. It also influenced the establishment of universities in Iran and Afghanistan.Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu's study sheds new light on an important and pioneering experiment in East-West relations, tracking the multifaceted transformation at work in Istanbul during the transition from classical to modern modes of scientific education. Out of this intellectual ferment, a new Ottoman Turkish scientific language developed, the terminology of which served as a convenient vehicle for expressing and teaching modern science throughout the Empire.List of AbbreviationsNote on TranscriptionsAcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroductionPart I: Genesis, Development, and Closure of the Dar?lf?nun1. New Pursuits in Education, Orientation to the Occident2. The First Attempt: Enlightening the People3. The Second Attempt: Dar?lf?nun-I Osmani Ottoman University 4. The third Attempt: Dar?lf?nun-I Sultani Sultanic University 5. The Succel³+