Ottoman Mosques in Albania: Building Acoustic Exploration inside Five Case Studies

Abstract

The Ottoman mosques of the 15th and 16th centuries represent an architectural typology that has been replicated in territories out of the Middle East for as long as Islam spread its influence on other countries. This paper deals with the determination of the acoustic properties inside a few Ottoman mosques located in different cities of Albania, specifically in Elbasan, Berat, Kavaja, Tirana and Shkodra. A comparison between the prayer rooms of these five mosques has been undertaken in terms of the main acoustic parameters by following the standard requirements outlined in ISO 3382-1. The architectural characteristics of the single-unit mosques chosen for this research study are determined by the domed-square musalla, which has a comparable volume size among all five mosques. Results gathered by the acoustic measurements undertaken in unoccupied conditions highlight an overall lack of speech understanding given the values of some acoustic parameters fairly acceptable. This outcome is justified by the geometrical configuration, worsened by the presence of a dome that creates a focusing effect of the sound rays, and by the reflecting finish materials applied to walls and roof that facilitate the build-up defect of echoes.

Acoustical characterization of three Ottoman masjids built in Algeria

“…The comparison of reverberation time measured in the three Algerian mosques discussed in this paper with those pertaining to other Ottoman masjids in the world (especially located in Turkey), 7,12,19,[44][45][46][47][48] showed that the first were in good agreement with the general trend as a function of room volume (Figure 13(a)), with the notable exception of Safir, where reverberation was actually very short also compared to many similar buildings. The Algerian Ottoman masjid Ketchaoua 44 that was recently restored (and for this reason not included in the present analysis), although having a similar volume than Jedid masjid (11,000 m 3 ), had an even shorter T 20 equal to 2.79 s, compared to the 3.18 s measured in Jedid masjid.…”

Soundscape in religious historical buildings: a review

“…The primary aim is to identify the characteristics and influencing factors of sound fields in both the indoor and outdoor spaces of religious historical buildings. The simulated spaces include various structural forms, such as towering churches [19,24,60,70,91,92], domed mosques [40][41][42]93], and traditional Chinese Buddhist temples [18,50]. The most commonly used parameters in sound field simulation are reverberation time (RT) and early decay time (EDT), followed by the sound pressure level (SPL), sound clarity, and loudness.…”