Chapter 1 sets out the nature of the four main sources from Peterborough on which this thesis is based. Two early-twelfth- and mid-thirteenth-century cartularies contain faithful copies of forged and genuine texts, dealing with events from the seventh century onwards. Two early- and mid-twelfth-century chronicles used some imported sources, but contain much accurate local information. Chapter 2 examines the early history of Medeshamstede, as Peterborough was known until the late-tenth century. Medeshamstede was a vital component in Mercian religion from foundation to the late-ninth century. Chapter 3 considers the nature of the primary sources for the tenth-century restoration of Medeshamstede as Peterborough. Chapter 4 considers Peterborough's foundation, during the tenth-century monastic reformation, and nature as a monastic institution: an important component in royal strategy towards uniting the kingdom, it was a distinguished house from the outset, and housed an important monastic school. Chapter 5 considers Peterborough's history from foundation to the Norman Conquest, largely in terms of themes established in Chapter 4: relations with leading churchmen and noblemen indicate distinguished status and a role in unifying the kingdom up to 1066.

This dissertation examines the evolution of early Buddhist architectural forms of Bengal, specifically its vihāra and shrine structures. In general, this research explores Gupta and post-Gupta (c. third to eighth centuries AD) vihāra architecture of Bengal, where the primary focus is on the Buddhist shrine architecture constructed during this period. There is a preconception amongst historians that the period between the Gupta and the Pāla periods was characterized by disorder and chaos, commonly known as the period of Matsyanyayam. This is the reason why discussions on the architectural history of Bengal have generally commenced from the Pāla period (c. 750 AD onwards). Analyzing extant and new evidences this study argues that the Buddhist architecture of Bengal thrived during the intervening period, albeit under the patronage of local kings and rulers. In the field of art and sculpture it is accepted that Buddhist Pāla art was a continuation of previous Gupta art forms, where post-Gupta period acted as the transition or a bridge. Following this general pattern, as this thesis argues, the rectangular Gupta shrine plan takes a mature cruciform shape during the Pāla period through a complex morphological development. The nature of Buddhist shrine architecture in Bengal during the early Gupta, later Gupta, and post-Gupta periods is described in the light of analyzed archaeological findings and architectural trends. As no extant remains of superstructures have been identified for any early Buddhist architecture in Bengal, this study also proposes their likely appearance through virtual reconstruction of selected shrines that also include the conjectural architectural plans for the early stage of its development as a preparation for further analysis. Through these analyses the thesis completes the study of morphological development of the Bengal vihāra of the pre-Pāla period, suggesting that the superstructure generally followed the north Indian Nāgara language.

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This work is intended primarily as an original contribution to knowledge in the field of architecture and subsequently as a useful text for architects and designers and grass roots Muslim community builders. Though written to serve in particular the Muslim communities who seek to establish socially dynamic places of work, and worship, the present study is intended to be of interest to those looking at approaches to build collectively and create a beneficial spaces and places of great architectural merit. Although the particular lived way or praxis that is served is Islam, which asserts unseen and seen realms and a life beyond this life, the present study is written from the human phenomenological perspective of being and dwelling in this world here and now, and addresses the cultural role of architecture today. Islam is equally concerned with the eternal now of the present moment. This open book exploration is enframed by a) the foil of a specific proposed mosque project and b) grounded in the history and living tradition of Islam, and c) the phenomenologically understood life patterns of those who would dwell in the mosque complex daily. Research is guided by a key thesis that the simplest and humblest edifice, the most basic mosque, is adorned by and serves an ethos, by human rhythms and behaviour that are contained by its walls, and walls that are the very ornamentation of that ethos. This ethos shall be known throughout the work as an embodied adab, or embodied ‘gathering of all good.’ This ethos describes both the best or desired intentions and actions of people and the architectural manifestation that appropriately responds to an architectural program to serve,shelter and sustain this intent. The methodology to explore the notion of an embodied adab is interpretive, and accepts the prejudices of the author as the only valid starting point, when asserting that architectural theory and practice is dialogical in nature, gathering to itself many inter-subjective and inter-objective realms in a hermeneutic cycle, which results in a reiterative design process. Personal intentionality and embodied experience therefore meet an interpretive reading of the Islamic Tradition to grasp the historicity of the mosque complex or imaret. Therefore it is important to state that research of the present work is grounded in over fifteen years of being a student of Islam and the integral practice of Sufism, studying and practising with a lineage that travels back from Spain through Morocco across North Africa to the source for Muslims that is the resting place and abode of the Prophet Muhammad in Madina al munawarra in modern Saudi Arabia. This immersive period has lead to an embodied understanding of Islam and Sufism and a deepening understanding of Islamic Architecture, and the need for the ethical role of architecture to be reappraised when contemplating mosque architecture, as either a historic subject or a live project. Prior to an independent and intensive study of Islam as an adult, was a gently Buddhist upbringing which philosophically prioritised not being contained by dogma or controlled by religious communities or spiritual leaders. Study of Pre-Islamic religious texts such the Upanishads and Buddhist sutras as well as various forms of Shamanism including the Bon Tradition of Tibet and the core lojong and tonglen practices of Buddhism have been investigated affirming the universal core message of most ethical ways of living, that of compassion and loving kindness. This is celebrated in the Islamic tradition by Muslims trusting that the Prophet Muhammad was quite literally sent by the Divine as rahma, a ‘mercy’ to existence. The author has studied Islamic belief, practice and spiritual excellence, or iman, islam, and ihsan, directly from traditional scholars from around the world, who together transcend any single ethnic or social identity. Some are direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and some are not of Arab descent. The priority of adab has come from a personal reflection on the value of life as a balance of vita activa et vita contemplativa, and is supported as a specific Islamic ethos by instruction from living masters and the great texts of Muslim scholars and mystics, commonly known as Sufis. All religious and philosophical studies have contributed to the notion of an ‘Ionian Enlightenment’ or the unity of knowledge, not as some simplistic single answer but as the value of interpretation and seeing realms of knowledge holistically and in relation to one another. This understanding mirrors the Muslim perspective that the Real, Allah, is One. Such a sentence is mystical poetics to some and reality to others. The subject of this PhD must negotiate both kinds of people, just as the proposed mosque complex must face the street on which anyone may walk. Poetically and ecologically our phenomenal earthly existence too is one, as observed by holistic and systems theories, living as we do as part of a single ecosphere. Despite being in danger of sounding rather lofty due to the nature of the subject itself, this declaration is a statement of intent and a personal acknowledgement, in the tradition of any phenomenologically hermeneutic methodology. The author’s interpretation is framed by the intent to see unity in multiplicity, the architectural paradox that is drawing order out of chaos, as much as to see each whole building as an interrelated sum of parts. Part of that intent is to convey to Muslim client builders, in more accessible works that will come from present research, the priority of a devotional ethos in the design of the dwelling that is a mosque complex; an ethos that may serve the community as a whole, in the context of any urban environment. For the Muslim this can be appreciated as both a spiritual and pragmatic imperative. This study and design process is a hermeneutic process of unfolding and interpretation by which the prayer becomes the means to reconfigure existing spaces, and a place for the practice of ethical halal business transactions can provide a successful urban node in the townscape. With clear justification, considering the current geo-political climate, the present work is polemical. Beyond the Minaret is an open exploration that gathers knowledges, in order to revive an understanding of adab as an embodied characteristic of a specifically Islamic ethos, and affirm the ethical role of architecture in general. The present work is concerned with how the Muslim worldview and the perspective of an embodied adab can inform our understanding of the mosque complex in the C21st. Despite the Arabic origin of the word itself, adab as the ethos that is the ‘gathering of all good’ transcends and includes any culture or language, if we but value the art of interpretation.

This thesis explores different aspects of the architecture and construction of mastaba tombs in the late Old Kingdom. In particular it focuses on a group of tombs in the Unas Cemetery at Saqqara that can be characterised by their design and size, which are known as multi roomed mastabas. This includes an appraisal of tombs within this cemetery and examines the layout and development of the cemetery from the reign of Unas. Specific attention is paid to the constructional techniques used to build tombs via the recording and examination of specific architectural elements within different monuments. Features such as doorways and the security of the tomb and other aspects, such as the provision of storage space for the maintenance of the mortuary cult, are all considered. The thesis utilises published sources and survey work carried out by the author. Until comparatively recently, there has been no real attempt to produce a detailed study of the architectural make-up of multi-roomed mastabas and the implications of these observations for understanding the ways in which mastaba tombs were actually used. No thorough and comprehensive investigation has ever been dedicated to the constructional techniques, technology, materials and 'styles' of mastabas or, indeed, who built them. This thesis addresses these questions and addresses the imbalance of recording within Old Kingdom private tombs.

This thesis deals with the origins of the architectural forms as expressed in the Homeric Mycenaean citadel. The Genesis of the Mycenaean Citadel is a philosophical quest which reveals the poetic dimension of the Mycenaean architecture. The Introduction deals with general theories on the subject of space, which converge into one, forming the spinal idea of the thesis. The ‘process of individuation’, the process by which a person becomes ‘in-dividual’ that is a separate, indivisible unity or ‘whole’, is a process of transformation and renewal which at collective level takes place within the citadel. This is built on the archetype which expresses both the nature of the soul as a microcosm and of the divinely ordered Cosmos. The confrontation of the rational ‘ego’ with the unconscious is the process which brings us to the ‘self’, that organising center of the human psyche which is symbolised through the centre of the citadel. . Chapter I refers to ‘the Archetype of the Mycenaean citadel’. The Mycenaean citadel, which is built on a certain pattern of placement and orientation in relation to landscape formations, reproduces images which belong to the category of the ‘archetypal mother’. On the other hand, its adjustment to a central point with ‘high’ significance, recalls the archetypal image of Shiva-Shakti. The citadel realises the concept of a Kantian ‘One-all embracing space’; it is a cosmogonic symbol but also a philosophical one. Chapter II examines the column in its dual meaning, which is expressed in one structure; column and capital unite within their symbolism the conscious and unconscious contents of the human psyche and express the archetype of wholeness and goal of the individuation process. 33 Chapter III is a philosophical research into the ‘symbolism of the triangle’, the sacred Pythagorean symbol which expresses certain cosmological beliefs about the relation between human nature and the divinely ordered Cosmos. The triangular slab over the Lion Gate is a representation of the Dionysiac ‘palingenesia’, that is the continuity of One life, which was central to the Mycenaean religion. Chapter IV deals with the tripartite ‘megaron’. The circular hearth within the four-columned hall expresses the ‘quaternity of the One’, one of the oldest religious symbols of humanity. Zeus is revealed in the ‘fiery monadic unit-cubit’ as an all-embracing god next to goddess Hestia, symbolised by the circular hearth. The ‘megaron’ expresses the alchemical quaternity and the triad but also the psychological stages of development in the process towards wholeness. In the Conclusions it is emphasised that the Mycenaean citadel was created as if in a repetition of a cosmogony. It is a ‘mandala’, the universal image which is identified with God-image in man. Moreover it is built in order to be experienced by its citizen in the process of his psychological transformation towards the ‘self’, the divine element within the psyche which unites with the divinely ordered Cosmos.

The limitations of this study are evident from the title. Only the architectural monuments of the Early Western Calukyas are here considered and those structures which date from earlier or later periods at the Western Calukyan sites together with the rock-cut monuments do not form part of the study. The sculptural and decorated portions of the buildings are only briefly referred to, and comparisons with the architecture of contemporary dynasties will not be attempted. Such severe limitations have been imposed so as to permit a thorough architectural description and analysis of what is the largest earliest group of temples known in India from this period. Such a study takes its starting point from a thorough documentation comprising a set of measured drawings and accompanying detailed descriptions. In comparing the buildings, it has been found necessary to divide them into a number of component features. These features are then individually compared, and the variations within each noted. The resulting observations are assembled, so that certain temples may be associated together by the similarity of their features. The few dated monuments may suggest the possibility of a tentative chronology, but such conclusions are not the main objective of this study.

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The predominant approach to the study of Doric temple architecture during the twentieth century has been the evolution model, which connects a temple’s design directly with its date of construction (Dinsmoor 1950; Lawrence 1996). Thus, the model allows temples to be dated to distinct decades, based upon their ‘key’ proportions, such as the length of the plan. B.A. Barletta’s (2011: 629) recent article entitled State of the Discipline: Greek Architecture discussed the need for constant reassessment of the proportions of Doric temples and their chronology, particularly in light of recent discoveries and new publications, suggesting that a reconsideration of the evolution model was now required. In the same article, Barletta (2011: 630) discussed the growing trend amongst classical archaeologists towards analysing the social role of temples. With the exception of the temple sculpture, which has generally been studied separately (Marconi 2007; Østby 2009; Maggidis 2009: 92-93), the move towards a social understanding of the temple has had little effect upon the study of the buildings’ designs. Although a number of studies have begun to investigate the role of architectural design in conveying meaning (Snodgrass 1986; Østby 2005), the studies are limited, both chronologically and geographically, by the constraints of the evolution model. Given the ‘mathematical’ image of classical architecture studies, and the subject’s “current lack of academic popularity” (Snodgrass 2007: 24), it is perhaps not surprising that a review of the evolution model and the social role of architectural design are long overdue. To this end, this study re-analyses the connection between date and design, demonstrating that a temple’s design was not entirely controlled by the date of its construction. Rather, temple design was affected by the sub-regional inter-group competition which was so prevalent in sanctuaries during the archaic and classical periods and the expression of identity on behalf of the different dedicatory groups.

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