The trajectory from arabesque to rap in Türkiye’s musical history can be read as a process of transformation in which tensions between East and West, center and periphery and religiosity and secularism gain continuity through aesthetic forms. When this continuity is interpreted through Ibn Khaldun’s cyclical understanding of social transformation, it becomes more analytically coherent.
According to Ibn Khaldun, every political structure is born from a strong asabiyyah, a bond of social solidarity. This bond typically emerges from the periphery. It is rigid, uncompromising, and not yet softened by institutional order. As the structure strengthens, this bond comes into contact with the center and becomes institutionalized. However, as prosperity increases, asabiyyah gradually dissolves. Even if the system survives, its founding energy begins to fade. Collapse often stems not from external forces but from internal exhaustion. Then a new asabiyyah emerges, and the cycle begins again.
The trajectory of arabesque music in Tükiye resembles the aesthetic counterpart of this cycle.
Arabesque developed over a long period of accumulation extending from the 1930s to the 1970s. During this phase, the makam-based musical aesthetics inherited from the Ottoman sphere were reproduced through intense musical interaction between Türkiye and Egypt. This was a formative stage – unnamed yet already circulating in sound. At this point, modal structures, elongated melodic phrases, vibratory vocal expression, and the temporal diffusion of emotion shaped the aesthetic character of arabesque. The influence of the Ottoman makam-based improvisational tradition, penetrating modern Egyptian vocal melodies and circulating through transregional musical exchanges, was central to this formation.
