The word literally means "extended" or "spread out" in Arabic.
[1] Along with the ṭawīl, kāmil, and wāfir, it is one of the four most common metres used in pre-Islamic and classical Arabic poetry.
An example is the qasīda by al-Mutanabbi (915-965): “The poet reproaches Sayf al-Dawla” (king of Aleppo), a poem of 38 couplets, from which come the following well-known verses: Although in the poem of al-Mutanabbi quoted above, the last foot of each half-verse is always | u u – |, other poets use the metre in the following form, where "uu" represents a biceps element, i.e. one where the two short syllables can optionally be replaced by one long one.
An example is the following drinking-song by Abu Nuwas which begins: The metre also exists in a trimeter form of which the half-verse is as follows: There is also a catalectic trimeter form: Occasionally the first foot of each half-verse can be | – u u – |.
[6] The term basīṭ is also used in a musical context; in the Andalusi nubah, or classical suites, of Morocco, each nubah, or suite, is divided into five main movements (called mīzān (ميزان; plural: mawāzīn, موازين)) each of which uses a different rhythm, as follows: