Rhythm in Arabic music is organized into cycles of beats and pauses. These rhythmic modes are known as iqa'at in many Arabic countries, but there are other names for this concept. In Egyptian music they are called durub . In North-Western Africa they are called mazim. In Turkish music rhythmic modes are known as usul and in Iran they are called darb. Each cycle consists of a fixed number of metric pulses (which vary between 3 to 48 or more), including a hierarchy of strong beats, weak beats, and silent beats that define a groove. In performance some of the rests or silent beats may be filled in, but the underlying feel is maintained.
The sounding beats vary in timbre and are described with onomatopoeic syllables. The strong beat (an-naqra al-qawiya) is described using the syllable "dum" for the heavy low-pitched center sound of the drum. The weak beat (an-naqra al-laiyina) is represented by the word "tek" for the bright, high-pitched edge or side sound of the drum. While sometimes it is also translated as the soft beat rather than the weak beat, it is not necessarily less loud than the strong beat. In some ways, it shares a similar feeling to the off-beat in Western music.
One could use these two elements to demonstrate Western rhythms. For instance, a simple rock drum beat could be written as:
1 2 3 4
dum tek dum tek
A waltz could be written as:
1 2 3
dum tek tek
The all-pervasive electronic-techno-every-beat-strong groove that seems to have become the only rhythm many people are now able to dance to would be:
1 2 3 4
dum dum dum dum
Fortunately, Arabic rhythm contains more subtlety and variation than the current state of techno music! The medium beat (an-naqra al-mutawassita) is used to embellish the rhythm. While the strong and weak beats define the rhythm, the rhythmic pattern is enhanced through the addition of medium beats: variations that show the true skill of the player. In the terminology used here for strong, medium, and weak beats, the term "beat" does not necessarily imply that each beat has an equal metric pulse the way the term is used in Western music, especially with respect to the embellishing medium beats.
Arabic Grooves
In Egypt, elzaffa, or wedding march, is a musical procession of drums. The main pattern is 8 beats long.
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |
dum tek ka tek tek dum tek tek (tek ka)
dum (right hand clear low tone)
tek (right hand high crisp tone)
ka (left hand, sounds like tek)
This section lists all Arabic rhythms discussed in this website. This is by no means a comprehensive list since many North African, Iraqi and Khaliji (from the Arab Gulf region) rhythms are not included. Instead this website covers the most commonly used rhythms in the Middle East. In practice, it's difficult to find a definitive list of Arabic rhythms that all textbooks agree on, or a definitive reference on which rhythms are strictly Arabic since there's often an overlap with Turkish, Greek and Persian rhythms.
Listen to the Personal Performances series of Arabic music podcasts.
Episode of 22 March 2006 discusses Arabic rhythms, the riq and its role in Arabic Music.
Episode of 14 July 2006 discusses the riqq and demonstrates similar rhythms in 4/4, 2/4 and 8/4.
Muwashahat Rhythms
The Andalusian Muwashahat (plural of Muwashah) are a musical form that originated in Al-Andalus (medieval Spain and Portugal). The muwashah is often composed using a complex rhythm, ranging from 2/4 to 48/4 and greater. A muwashah may use more than one rhythm, although the norm is a single rhythm throughout. Lyrics in a muwashah are poetry in classical Arabic, and must neatly fit the rhythm (every syllable must fall on a beat).
Muwashahat Rhythms are shown in 5 different pages for convenience: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ]
The following is a listing of Muwashahat rhythms in alphabetical order:
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The same Muwashahat rhythms are listed in the order of their time signature:
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