Room acoustics contribution to spirituality and intelligibility in using traditional historical mosques based on acoustics simulation: Case study in Cenabi Ahmet Pasa mosque in Ankara, Türkiye

Despite the ongoing studies that investigate the acoustics environment of mosques for ensuring spiritual sensations and intelligibility of speech, taking into consideration the location of sound sources and the emitted speech content is unexplored. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies that investigate the gender-based perception of the acoustic conditions, especially in separated zones in mosques. Accordingly, this study investigates the room acoustics of a historical mosque in Ankara, Türkiye, based on acoustic simulations. It interprets the results based on sound source location and related postures, as the emitted sound varies between melodic and speech forms. Furthermore, it compares the results from men’s and women’s zones as they are separated from each other inside the mosque. The results indicate that the mosque, in its current usage, provides adequate reverberation time (T30) that sustains spirituality. Additionally, speech intelligibility has been found acceptable at higher frequencies in most of the space. As for the men’s and women’s comparison, it was found that both groups received approximately the same T30s; however, intelligibility was noticeably better in the women’s zone. This study is expected to contribute further considerations regarding sacred places’ acoustics.