Rhythms in Arabic music are rich and verydiverse, as they cover a huge region and peoples from Northern Africa to Western Asia. Rhymes are mainly analysed by means of rhythmic units calledawzan andiqa'at.

A rhythmic pattern or cycle inArabic music is called a "wazn" (Arabic:وزن; plural أوزان /awzān), literally a "measure".^[1]

Awazn is only used inmusical genres with a fixed rhythmic-temporal organization including recurring measures,motifs, andmeter orpulse.^[2] It consists of two or more regularly recurring time segments, each time segment consisting of at least two beats (naqarāt, plural ofnaqrah). There are approximately one hundred different cycles used in the repertoire of Arabic music, many of them shared with other regional music, also found in some South European styles likeSpanish music. They are recorded and remembered throughonomatopoetic syllables and the written symbols O and I.^[3]Wazn may be as large as 176 units of time.^[4]

Iqa' (Arabic:إيقاع /īqā‘; plural إيقاعات /īqā‘āt) arerhythmic modes or patterns inArabic music.^{[5][full citation needed]} There are reputed to be over 100iqa'at,^{[6][full citation needed]} but many of them have fallen out of fashion and are rarely if ever used in performance. The greatest variety ofiqa'at (ranging from two to 48 beats) are used in themuwashshah.

• Dumbek rhythms
• Usul
• Sa'idi

• Habib Hassan Touma (1996).The Music of the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.ISBN 0-931340-88-8.

• Arabic Rhythms page from Maqam World