Jins / Ajnas

A Jins is a series of 3, 4 or 5 notes.

“Jins” in Arabic comes from the ancient Latin word “genus,” meaning type. Due to continuous innovation and the emergence of new jins, and because most music scholars have not reached consensus on the subject, it is difficult to provide a solid figure for the total number of jins in use. Nonetheless, in practice most musicians would agree there are at least nine major ajnas: 3Ajam, Sikah, Bayati, Hijaz, Kurd, Sabah, Rast, Nahawand and Nakriz.

The 9 main ajnas :
3 notes – trichord
Ajam Bb	Sikah E¼
4 notes – tetrachord
Bayati D	Hijaz D
Kurd D	Sabah D
Rast C	Nahawand C
5 notes – pentachord
Nawa Athar / Nakriz C

The Ajnas are the building blocks of a maqam.

The ajnas are put together to form a seven note maqam. The maqam usually covers only one octave, but can cover more. Usually two ajnas are combined consecutively to make a maqam, however 3 or 4 overlapping ajnas can be used. Like the melodic minor scale, some maqamat use different ajnas depending on whether descending or ascending, especially in the upper part of the maqam.Mukhalif is a rare jins used almost exclusively in Iraq, and it is not used in combination with other ajnas.

The maqamat can be organized into 9 main groups according to their starting jins :

Maqam families

• Ajam – Ajam, Jiharkah, Shawq Afza

• Sikah – Bastanikar, Huzam, Iraq, Mustaar, Rahat El Arwah, Sikah, Sikah Baladi

• Bayati – Bayatayn, Bayati, Bayati Shuri, Husseini, Nahfat

• Hijaz – Hijaz, Hijaz Kar, Shadd Araban, Shahnaz, Suzidil Zanjaran

• Kurd – Kurd, Hijaz Kar Kurd

• Sabah – Sabah, Sabah Zamzam

• Rast – Mahur, Nairuz, Rast, Suznak, Yakah

• Nahawand – Farahfaza, Nahawand, Nahawand Murassah , Ushaq Masri

• Nawa Athar – Athar Kurd, Nawa Athar, Nikriz