Istanbul, University of

Istanbul, University of 

one of the oldest universities in Turkey. It was founded in 1453 and was an Islamic university until the 20th century. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, it was reorganized in 1927 and 1933 to become a secular university. In 1975 the university had departments of literature (with an institute of Turkish studies), science, law, economics, forestry, medicine (two), dentistry, pharmacy, chemistry, and engineering. The university library has more than 250,000 holdings. In the 1974–75 academic year the university had an enrollment of more than 35,000 students and a faculty of 1,400 professors and instructors.