Explore the vast range of titles available.

Expenditures, such as repair, heating and lighting costs, and payment of mosque staff’s salaries, are the main cost items that need to be satisfied for mosques to continue their services. Throughout history, these expenses have been met sometimes with the state budget, sometimes through waqfs and associations, and sometimes with the cash aid provided by the people directly in Turkey. Adding a commercial function to the mosque, which was built for the sake of continuous income, has been seen in the history of Turkey since the Ottoman period. However, the commercial units dedicated to the mosque during this period were not always close to the mosque; sometimes they could also be located in very remote location. Today, a type of structure is built which can be called a trade and religious building in the lower floor of the mosque, or as a part of the same floor due to space shortage, cost reduction etc. This type of building, which was interpreted with different perspectives, caused problems in terms of perceptibility, ratio and proportion, visuality, accessibility, noise pollution, and the moral values of the mosque, and even became the subject of lawsuits for the closure of commercial functions. In this context, the commercial functions that the mosques added to the structure in order to find financial resources were examined throughout the city center of Antalya. Accordingly, the architectural projects and zoning status of the 15 identified mosques were examined, and a spatial and configuration analysis was made. The functionality of the mosques was discussed with the mosque community, its officials, and the people in the area close to the mosque via focus group discussions, and examples of the issue brought to the judiciary were examined.

Purpose This study critically examines the safety aspects of ablution spaces in United Arab Emirates (UAE) mosques, emphasising the evaluation of smooth ceramic tile floorings prone to water accumulation. As an integral practice in Islamic worship, ablution spaces cater to a diverse demographic, making their safety a paramount concern. This study aims to meticulously assess slip-resistance properties and surface characteristics to provide practical recommendations for enhanced safety measures. Design/methodology/approach The investigation involves in situ measurements of traction properties and an extensive analysis of surface features in thirty mosques across the UAE. This comprehensive approach allows for identifying the unique challenges posed by ceramic tile floorings in ablution spaces. The study uses a portable tribometer for dynamic friction coefficient measurements, ensuring accurate slip-resistance evaluations. Surface texture analysis uses a portable profilometer to quantify roughness parameters. Findings The study’s findings significantly advance the comprehension of safety considerations in ablution spaces. Through empirical evidence and evidence-based insights, the research identifies immediate safety concerns and provides practical recommendations to create secure and inclusive environments within mosques. The emphasis lies on safeguarding the well-being of worshippers and contributing to the broader goal of safety in religious spaces. Originality/value The original contribution of this study lies in its dual focus on immediate safety concerns and the deeper understanding of unique safety challenges within ablution spaces. By offering evidence-based insights and practical recommendations, the research strives to make meaningful contributions to creating secure and inclusive environments within mosques.

Mosque buildings have symbolic significance, which makes them ideal candidates for implementing energy-efficient building design strategies. Mosques located in hot climates face several challenges in achieving thermal comfort while meeting energy efficiency requirements due to their distinct architectural features and intermittent occupancy patterns. Addressing these challenges requires integrating innovative energy-efficient retrofit strategies that cater to the characteristics of existing contemporary mosque buildings. Thus, this study provides a review of these approaches, considering both passive and active strategies. Passive strategies include thermal insulation, glazing upgrades, and shading improvements, while active ones include Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) zoning and smart control, lighting upgrades, and the integration of photovoltaic panels. The findings highlight the potential of combining both passive and active retrofitting measures to achieve substantial energy performance improvements while addressing the thermal comfort needs of mosque buildings in hot climates. However, more research is needed on smart control systems and advanced building materials to further enhance energy performance in mosque buildings. By adopting these strategies, mosques can serve as models of energy-efficient design, promoting sustainability and resilience in their communities.

This thorough study looks at the use of machine learning (ML) techniques to forecast energy usage in buildings, with an emphasis on mosques. As energy use has a greater impact on both the environment and the economy, it is becoming increasingly important to optimize energy usage in buildings, especially for religious organizations such as mosques. The study goes into a variety of ML methods and models, including neural networks, regression models, decision trees, and clustering algorithms, each customized to a distinct difficulty in energy management. The paper evaluates the efficacy of several ML techniques, noting their merits, shortcomings, and potential applications. Additionally, it investigates the impact of climate, mosque design, occupancy patterns, and geographical variables on energy use. To achieve accurate energy consumption projections, rigorous data collecting, pre-processing, and model validation procedures are required. The paper also discusses important data sources and methodologies for mosque-specific energy analysis. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the practical benefits of applying ML in energy prediction, such as cost savings, increased environmental sustainability, and better resource allocation. This study’s ramifications extend beyond mosques, providing useful insights into energy management in buildings in general. By summarizing the current state of ML applications in mosque energy prediction, this study is an important resource for researchers, decision-makers, and energy management practitioners, paving the way for future advancements and the adoption of more sustainable energy practices in religious institutions.

The Zaatari Camp in Jordan exemplifies how Syrian refugees transform a planned grid settlement into an organic urban environment through socio-spatial adaptation, reflecting their cultural identity and territorial practices. This study investigates the camp’s morphological evolution, analyzing how refugees reconfigure public and private spaces to prioritize privacy, security, and community cohesion. Using qualitative methods—including archival maps, photographs, and field observations—the research reveals how formal public areas are repurposed into private shelter extensions, creating zones of influence that mirror traditional Arab-Islamic urban patterns. Key elements such as mosques, markets, and hierarchical street networks emerge as cultural anchors, shaped by refugees’ prior urban experiences. However, this organic growth introduces challenges, such as blocked streets and undefined spaces, which hinder safety and service delivery, underscoring tensions between informal urbanization and structured planning. The findings advocate urban resilience and participatory planning frameworks that integrate socio-cultural values, emphasizing defensible boundaries, interdependence, and adaptable design. Refugees’ territorial behaviors—such as creating diagonal streets and expanding shelters—highlight their agency in reshaping urban systems, challenging conventional top-down approaches. This research focuses on land-use dynamics, sustainable cities, and adaptive urban systems in crisis contexts. By bridging gaps between displacement studies and urban theory, the study offers insights into fostering social inclusion and equitable infrastructure in transient settlements. Future research directions, including comparative analyses of refugee camps and cognitive mapping, aim to deepen understanding of socio-spatial resilience. Ultimately, this work contributes to global dialogues on informal urbanization and culturally responsive design, advocating for policies that align with the Sustainable Development Goals to rebuild cohesive, resilient urban environments in displacement settings.

Cave-dwelling bats widely use anthropogenic structures such as temples in south Asia as roosting and nursery sites. Such roosts are constantly under threat, even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the importance of such roosts, there is no detailed understanding of what makes temples favorable for bats and the critical factors for their persistence. Here we relate temple microhabitat characteristics and land use around ancient temples (>400 years) to bat species richness and abundance in the Tamiraparani river basin of south India. Temples were selected for sampling along the river basin based on logistics and permission to access them. We counted bats at the roost in the mornings and late afternoons from inside the temples. Temple characteristics such as dark rooms, walkways, crevices, towers, and disturbances to the roosts were recorded. Based on European Space Agency land use classifications, we recorded land use such as crops, trees, scrub, grassland, urban areas, and water availability within a 5 km radius of the temple. Generalized Linear Mixed Models were used to relate the counts in temples with microhabitats and land use. We sampled 59 temples repeatedly across 5 years which yielded a sample of 246 survey events. The total number of bats counted was 20,211, of which Hipposideros speoris was the most common (9,715), followed by Rousettus leschenaultii (5,306), Taphozous melanopogon (3,196), Megaderma lyra (1,497), Tadarida aegyptiaca (303), Pipistrellus sp . (144) and Rhinopoma hardwickii (50). About 39% of the total bats occurred in dark rooms and 51% along walkways. Species richness and total abundance were related to the availability of dark rooms and the number of buildings in the temple. Land use elements only had a weak effect, but scrub and grassland, even though they were few, are critical for bats. We conclude that retaining undisturbed dark rooms with small exits in temples and other dimly lit areas and having natural areas around temples are vital for bat conservation.

Urban Arsen is one of the land use patterns in Iranian Islamic cities. This pattern from previous periods is one of the urban design methods in Iranian cities that forms urban centers and nuclei in both urban and local scales and in different types. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to recognize the position of the urban Arsen model in the traditional Iranian–Islamic urban planning system, which is done by analytical research method and qualitative approach. Findings show that the urban Arsen model has important types such as religious, commercial, educational and government Arsen. Also, religious Arsens with the center of holy shrines or urban and local mosques are among the most important urban centers and nuclei that have a spirituality focused on the pilgrimage or religious component, the central element of urban Arsen. This Pattern can be very useful and effective in urban design of city centers. A pattern that has a strong urban meaning and identity, including in the religious Arsen centered on the holy shrines and mosques and mixed use Arsen centered on historical bazaars.

Mosques are distinguished from other buildings functionally and operationally, so there has recently been great interest in the energy consumption inside them in Egypt. Consequently, the novel proposed methodology in this study is integrating smart occupancy sensor systems inside mosques and analyzing their current and further impact on energy consumption. Thus, the main aim is to reduce mosque energy consumption with the integration of smart sensors inside mosques besides the prediction of the efficiency of this approach based on climate change during the future periods of 2050 and 2080. Hence, the DesignBuilder software program was used to build the model and investigate the improvement of energy consumption after integrating smart occupancy sensors currently and in the future. The findings indicate that the reduction in total energy consumption ranges from 16.2% to 21.2%, while the energy index reaches 69 kWh/(m2·yr). The study proves the efficiency of smart occupancy sensors in reducing energy consumption in the short and long term, in addition to being an eco-friendly system and not requiring changes to the building structure.

The focus of discussion in addressing the treatment gap is often on biomedical services. However, community resources can benefit health service scale-up in resource-constrained settings. These assets can be captured systematically through resource mapping, a method used in social action research. Resource mapping can be informative in developing complex mental health interventions, particularly in settings with limited formal mental health resources. We employed resource mapping within the Programme for Improving Mental Health Care (PRIME), to systematically gather information on community assets that can support integration of mental healthcare into primary care in rural Ethiopia. A semi-structured instrument was administered to key informants. Community resources were identified for all 58 sub-districts of the study district. The potential utility of these resources for the provision of mental healthcare in the district was considered. The district is rich in community resources: There are over 150 traditional healers, 164 churches and mosques, and 401 religious groups. There were on average 5 eddir groups (traditional funeral associations) per sub-district. Social associations and 51 micro-finance institutions were also identified. On average, two traditional bars were found in each sub-district. The eight health centres and 58 satellite clinics staffed by Health Extension Workers (HEWs) represented all the biomedical health services in the district. In addition the Health Development Army (HDA) are community volunteers who support health promotion and prevention activities. The plan for mental healthcare integration in this district was informed by the resource mapping. Community and religious leaders, HEWs, and HDA may have roles in awareness-raising, detection and referral of people with mental illness, improving access to medical care, supporting treatment adherence, and protecting human rights. The diversity of community structures will be used to support rehabilitation and social reintegration. Alcohol use was identified as a target disorder for community-level intervention.

Oman is one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, most of the population being Muslim. It faces the severest water shortage in the world. Male Muslims are obliged to pray in mosques five times a day. Wudu (Ablution -a prescribed manner of body cleansing by water) is essential before each prayer. So, Ablution in mosques consumes the largest amount of water. Saving and reuse/recycling of ablution water will improve water management for the country and hence the region. Water conservation in mosques will also educate the population to conserve water. The main aim of this research was to explore options for improving water demand management in mosques. No empirical research has so far been reported in water management in mosques in the GCC region. The research quantified the amount of ablution water and evaluated water conservation appliances. It also explored social cultural and religious attitudes to reuse /recycle ablution water. The study used both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Forty-one key informant interviews, 120 observations and, 120 measurements using a water-smart flow meter were carried out in the research. The research found that 7 L of water per Wudu is being consumed while it could be done with 0.6 L of water. The study found that suitable policies for water use in mosques, installation of water conservation appliances, appropriate operating water pressure and a positive attitude towards reuse/recycling of ablution water will contribute to improving water management policies and practices for mosques.