This section is the most important one to understand: the vast majority of modulations happen along a few common, well-known, pathways. (just like the vast majority of blues songs follow a few common, well-known, chord progressions). The bulk of knowledge held by musicians in the Arabic tradition is the knowledge of these pathways. The pathways are not pre-determined by some physical, acoustic, or musical law--rather they are acquired knowledge stored in memory. If you wish to understand the maqam system, you must then store all of these common pathways in your memory, just as you would have to store in your memory all of the words and common phrases of a new language you wished to learn
In order to illustrate common pathways, we have to show enough examples of different songs using the same pathways--so you recognize the commonality. Therefore I had room on this site to fully illustrate only two maqamat (/maqam families), Rast and Bayati. But once you understand the principle, you should then begin to recognize that the remaining songs on the website are also following common pathways in other maqamat (but that there wasn't enough space to show many examples of the same pathways), and you should expect those same pathways to occur in other songs you listen to. Aside from the examples on the Unique Pathways page, everything else you see on this site you should expect to find elsewhere--in fact I have chosen the examples here precisely to show what is shared and common in the maqam system.
In the Maqam System, Rast has the largest number of available pathways, one of the reasons I chose it for this analysis site. The following three pages illustrate the majority of the Rast pathways; and then the "Big Picture" analysis page on "Aruh Li Meen" ties all of that together. The header links below take you to the individual pages on those pathways, while this page gives the overview, with one example from each pathway.
(from Aruh Li Meen)
(from Muwashshah "Ya Shadi il-Alhan")
Bayati & Saba 5 (from Ghannili Shwayya)
Sikah 3 (from Ghannili Shwayya)
Secondary Saba 6/8 (From Dawr "Ijma3 Shufna")
Jiharkah 8 (From Ya Maal ish-Sham)
Bayati also has a number of common pathways, that all form a part of the essential identity of the Maqam--Nahawand 4, Rast 4, Ajam 6, and Hijaz 4 are all part of the central identity of Bayati. As above, the header links take you to the individual pages with more examples of each pathways:
(from Ah Ya Hilu)
(from Nura Nura)
(from "Taheya")