The Absorption Characteristics of Muslim Worshippers

Abstract

The Masjid (Mosque) is the most important architectural space in the religious life of the Muslim. However, although considerable effort has been spent on the investigation of the absorption coefficient of an audience in many other situations, the absorption characteristics of people performing prayers according to the Islamic rules have never been measured. As this information is essential for the design of the acoustics of Masjids, this work describes an investigation of the absorption per person, A_obj, for the worshippers performing prayer according to Islamic rules. The absorption characteristics of Muslim worshippers have been investigated in the reverberation chamber of the Acoustic Research Unit, University of Liverpool according to BS- EN-ISO 354:2003. The four positions of the group prayer according to the Islamic rules (standing, bowing, prostration and sitting in rows on carpet) were simulated with thirteen male persons in the reverberation chamber in addition to a fifth position where the audience were sitting down in a random way on carpet to simulate the position of listening to the Friday sermon. Results were calculated for the sound absorption per person and compared with other reported values of audience absorption. Results showed that at the mid and high frequencies the maximum absorption occurs for the standing position followed by the bowing position, the random sitting position, the sitting in rows position and finally the prostrate position which exhibited the minimum values.