This dissertation investigates a middle Byzantine (10th-11th c.) typology, the rock-cut Courtyard Complexes, spread throughout Cappadocia in central Turkey, with a special focus on the A&ccedil / iksaray Group. Usually organized around three sided courtyards, these complexes stand either within an ensemble or in isolation. Nevertheless, the concentration of complexes is remarkable on strategic points near fortresses or military roads. Courtyard Complexes have large receptional suites as well as utilitarian spaces such as kitchens, stables and apparently multi-functional rooms all carved around a courtyard. The majority of the complexes have their own churches also carved in the rock mass. High decorated fa&ccedil / ades adorn the Courtyard Complexes and make them visible from a considerable distance. Because of the distinctive elaborate design, and the large number of still standing examples, as well as the communal life style that they indicate, these Cappadocian complexes have attracted scholarly attention in both monastic and secular Byzantine studies. Consequently, it was necessary for the dissertation to reconsider both religious and secular communities and their physical expressions in the form of monasteries and various dwelling types of the era. On the other hand, the idiosyncratic volcanic landscape and carved architecture required an extensive comparative architectural investigation of all Courtyard Complexes known so far in Cappadocia. Based on the results coming out from the contextual studies and architectural analysis this dissertation proposes aristocratic families with a military function on this border land of Byzantine as the initial inhabitants of the Courtyard Complexes. The A&ccedil / iksaray Group in particular, with the paucity of its churches contrasting its elaborate stables, bears the traces of a secular medieval community of some importance.

This dissertation offers a critical examination of the Mangana Quarter in Byzantine Constantinople, which was renowned for the Mangana Complex consisting of an imperial monastery and a palace commissioned by Constantine IX Monomachos (reigned 1042–1055), through an archaeological perspective. The Quarter was situated on the eastern slopes of the Acropolis of Byzantion and today is concealed by the gardens of the Topkapı Palace in Sarayburnu. The area remains one of the least-explored urban districts in Istanbul, thus a void in current scholarship on the historical topography and archaeology of Byzantine Constantinople. To this date, the only large-scale archaeological fieldwork in the area was conducted by Robert Demangel and Ernest Mamboury between 1921 and 1923. However, the findings of this excavation have been found problematic, especially with respect to the identifications, architectural chronology and functions with regard to the architectural complexes of the Mangana Quarter, such as the Hodegon monastery, the Mangana Gate and the Church of Christ the Savior. This dissertation revisits the textual and archaeological evidence on the Mangana Quarter and resituates it within a broader historical context of the urbanism of the acropolis and city of Constantinople. In doing so, it offers a fresh perspective about the Byzantine monuments of Sarayburnu drawing on new archaeological evidence. As such, the dissertation presents the first comprehensive analysis of the Mangana Complex and its place within the monastic and palatial architecture of the Middle Byzantine period. Archaeology is given a particular emphasis, and new discoveries from Sarayburnu are examined with the sight of deconstructing the Byzantine-period building complexes of the Mangana Quarter. The dissertation reaches three main conclusions that offer new insights into the archaeology of Byzantine Constantinople, as well as the history of Byzantine archaeology in Turkey. First, through a thorough analysis of Ottoman Turkish, French and Turkish archival documents, the dissertation yields significant insights about the history of the previous fieldwork in Sarayburnu both conducted by the French Army during the occupation of Istanbul after World War I -a period entirely overlooked in previous scholarship- and by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Secondly, the new archaeological evidence from the Mangana Complex, analyzed for the first time in this dissertation, challenges previously held architectural chronologies and interpretations, and suggests alternative locations particularly for the Mangana Palace and the Mangana katholikon. Lastly, on the basis of this critical reading of the archaeology of the Mangana Complex, the dissertation reconsiders the architectural history of the church of St. George Tropaiophoros and its alleged pivotal role in manifesting cross-cultural interactions between the Caucassian and Byzantine lands.

This thesis examines the relationship between Jews and Christians in the Holy Land from the age of Constantine the Great to the conquest of the eastern provinces by the Arabs from an archaeological viewpoint. At stake is a better understanding of how Jews adapted to changing times, particularly during the rise of Christianity in Palestine. Whereas earlier scholars have viewed the growth of the Byzantine empire as time of persecution toward the Jews, a re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence indicates that Jews prospered along with their Christian neighbors. In scope, this dissertation aims first to re-evaluate how many ancient building remains can be classified as synagogues, and how many of those can be accurately dated. For only after a solid body of archaeological research is firmly established can further progress be made toward our better understanding of the ancient world. Diversity in contemporaneous synagogue layouts, rather than a linear development throughout this period is the norm. Yet, in the sixth-century, one-third of all known synagogues in Palestine bear similar features to early Byzantine churches: basilical layouts, mosaic floors, apses, and chancel screens. Since no single fourth-century synagogue had an apse or chancel screen in its repertoire of furnishings, a reform must have taken place, which ultimately enhanced the synagogue. It has long been held that this change had originated under the influence of the growing Christian population in the Holy Land. Examining the nature of early Christian liturgical practice throws light on these changes to synagogues. For the focal point of the early Christian basilica, the altar in the sanctuary, separated from the hall by a chancel screen, was adapted by these Jewish communities. By placing the Torah Shrine in the apse of synagogues, the sacred nature of the Five Books of Moses was glorified. In focusing on the apse and niche it is suggested that rather than a positive influence toward the Jews, the deeply-rooted rivalry between Christianity and Judaism was the main implement for change. Jewish leaders built synagogues with apses and chancel screens to amplify and venerate the most important object in the hall - the Torah Scrolls - kept in the Torah Ark. Unlike earlier buildings, the Torah Shrine was set in the same position as the altar in churches, in the apse. Renovating interiors, changes to entrances, and new types of furnishings in synagogues were the physical changes to this institution which reflect the impact of Christian art on synagogues.

Thesis (doctoral)--Princeton, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [202]-109) an index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 361-395). / Starting from the premise that maps are essentially about visualizing space, this dissertation examines what the Ottoman maps of Istanbul reveal about the city's perception, as it evolved in connection to urban development after the conquest. The maps that form the subject of this study appear as illustrations in three manuscript books. The Istanbul maps contained in Mecmu'-i Menazil (1537-8) and HiinernAme (1584) respectively mark the beginning and the accomplishment of the city's architectural elaboration. The other twenty maps, featuring in manuscript copies of Kitab-i Bahriye (1520s), roughly span the period between 1550 and 1700. The variants of a design fixed around 1570 offer an image that fulfills its topographic elaboration in the late-seventeenth century. While the making of this map's design relates to Istanbul's sixteenth century urban development, its topographical elaboration reflects a new perception of the city. These picture-maps, produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, form a unique group of documents as the only known Ottoman pictorial representations showing the city as a whole. As revealed by the context of the books containing them, their making relates both to Ottoman Empire's territorial expansion and to the appropriation of Constantinople as its new capital. Their cartographic language combines, in different manners, the familiar conventions of Islamic miniature painting with artistic forms encountered and assimilated during territorial expansion, particularly in contact with Venice. / (cont.) Especially the making of the Istanbul maps in Kitfb-i Bahriye copies illustrates the crucial role of the Mediterranean seafaring culture, its navigation manuals, nautical charts and island books. These images of Istanbul can be related to the development of the urban landscape and its symbolic function. Their study as cartographic representations pays attention to both accuracy and emphasis in their topographic contents. Supported by contemporary European visual sources and travel accounts as well as Ottoman topographic and poetic descriptions of Istanbul, the viewing directions, the depictions of buildings, and the overall cartographic composition in these maps are interpreted as features shaping a symbolic landscape that developed from an ideal vision to an actual garden-like urban environment, structured by land, water, and architecture. / by İffet Orbay. / Ph.D.