The maqamat of Arab music are generally understood as melody types, similar to the Hindu ragas and the Greek nomoi. Yet, modern theory tends to treat them quite abstractly as scales in the Western sense. Even learned Arab musicians, when asked about the interrelationships of different songs in a given maqam, will point to a scale comprised of fixed interval relationships as the only binding factor, seemingly undisturbed by the fact that the improvisatory sections of songs—for instance, their openings or interludes like the ya-leil or the maual—are clearly based on specific melody types.

The basic studies of Idelsohn, Farmer and others, though discussing various aspects of the maqamat, say little about the nature of the living music. Hampered by the lack of precise tools of measurement, these pioneers failed to answer a number of pertinent questions. For example, do all songs written in a particular maqam share common melodic elements, and, if so, to what extent are these fixed for a particular social group ? Such patterns might be of many different types, possessing the most varied tonal and rhythmic characteristics.