The Dream exhibition borrows its Arabic title, Suni‘a Bisihrika, from a phrase created to facilitate the memorization of the eight main Arabic musical maqâms. Each letter in this phrase represents the first letter of a main maqâm’s name. Maqâms are formal musical structures that have been used for centuries in a vast region that includes the Arab World and its neighboring geographies, extending to Central Asia.

Beyond their function as aesthetic structures, maqâms are charged with historical, cultural, social, and political dynamics that have formed over centuries. Examining the appellations and origins of these maqâms reveals that they reflect a rich artistic and cultural diversity beyond national, religious, and linguistic identity. They have endured through political shifts, cycles of exclusion and persecution, wars, and the collapse of empires.  

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