Rhythm in Arabic music

Rhythms in Arabic music are rich and very diverse, as they cover a huge region and peoples from Northern Africa to Western Asia.

Rhymes are mainly analysed by means of rhythmic units called awzan and iqa'at.

[1] A wazn is only used in musical genres with a fixed rhythmic-temporal organization including recurring measures, motifs, and meter or pulse.

They are recorded and remembered through onomatopoetic syllables and the written symbols O and I.

The greatest variety of iqa'at (ranging from two to 48 beats) are used in the muwashshah.