Maqam
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A modal structure characterizing the art of music of countries in North Africa, West Asia and Central Asia.
"Elsewhere in the evening the young Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, who has studied both jazz and traditional Arabic maqam patterns and combines them in modal pieces for improvisers, demonstrated with his sextet (including an oud and a santoor, the Persian hammered dulcimer) how hungry jazz still is for sources older than itself."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Elsewhere in the evening the young Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, who has studied both jazz and traditional Arabic maqam patterns and combines them in modal pieces for improvisers, demonstrated with his sextet (including an oud and a santoor, the Persian hammered dulcimer) how hungry jazz still is for sources older than itself."
Etymology
Ultimately from Arabic مَقَام (maqām). Doublet of mugham.
Related phrases
More for "maqam"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.