The institute was planned by the Iranian educated Mirzā Rezā Mohandes (fa), and built by the architect Mohammad-Taqi Khān Memār-Bāshi (fa) under the supervision of the Qajar prince Bahrām Mirzā. 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 Mirzā Yahyā Khan Qarāgozlu (also known as Etemād od-Dowleh), 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 Dār ul-Funun Department of Medicine, established in 1851, which had become the School of Medicine (Madreseh-ye Tebb) in 1919.[4] 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.
^Transliteration: Tavānā bovad har keh dānā bovad – Ze dānesh del-e pīr bornā bovad
^In verse form the couplet may be translated as: Capable is he who is wise – Happiness from wisdom will arise.
^For an illustrated report on Dar ol-Fonoun see: Hamid-Reza Hosseini, Dar ol-Fonoun in want of love ("Dar ol-Fonoun dar hasrat-e eshgh"), in Persian, Jadid Online, September 22, 2008, [1]. The pertinent photographs (15 in total) can be viewed here: [2].
