Dârulfünûn: Kadim Kavramların Terkibi

Abstract

The subject of this study is the composition of Dârulfünûn, which is considered appropriate as a name for the new institution that emerged on the stage of history to provide higher education in the nineteenth century. In the second quarter of the nineteenth century in the Ottoman State, the Temporary Council of Education (Meclis-i Maârif-i Muvakkat) was established in order to discuss the educational affairs within the scope of public education (terbiyet-i âmme) and to carry out some planning. The Council advised the state that the activities of education and training should be divided into three levels and that a new higher education institution should be opened with the advanced level of the educational institutions at that time, and deemed the name “Darulfünun” appropriate for the institution. In the nomenclature of darulfünun, some historians prefer to read the matter by contrasting it with the pre-existing understanding of madrasah education and the newly formed understanding of education, which constitutes the problem of our study. In this context, the claim of the study is that the elements in the composition of Darulfünun in the nomenclature issue have a counterpart in the history of ancient science, culture and education; that the new structure is not opposed to the madrasah and the understanding of education it represents. In the study, the historical data analysis method was based on solving the identified problem. As a result of the study, it was determined that the words that constitute the composition of Darulfünun had a counterpart in the history of ancient science, culture and education; the new structure was not opposed to the madrasah and the understanding of education that it represented.