Makam Medicine
The Living Architecture of Turkish Music Therapy
This is the first in a series exploring the role and efficacy of makams in therapeutic environments, along with historical overviews and personal reflections on my intellectual, emotional, and somatic experiences with individual Turkish makams.
When we speak of Turkish Music Therapy, it is easy to become absorbed in the romance of regional history and culture and overlook the fact that this is a potent set of technologies deployed for a specific healing purpose.
This brings us to a foundational question:
What are the modalities within this system, and how do they function?
The subject is expansive, and each modality deserves its own sustained treatment. Today I would like to begin with a brief overview of the primary modalities before narrowing our focus to the most foundational among them: makam.*
Note: The plural of the word makam in Turkish is makamlar; however for ease of English reading, I will pluralize makam as makams in this article.
The Six Modalities of Turkish Music Therapy
According to an article published by Dr. Rahmi Oruç Güvenç, six foundational therapies structure the system of Turkish Music Therapy as transmitted through his teachings.1 While some of his direct students may identify additional modalities, I work here from Baba’s published list and related materials, supplemented by personal conversations with lineage-holding students who likewise emphasize these six.
Makams: Musical modes common in Turkish music and other Middle Eastern and Central Asian performance traditions. These form the primary focus of this article.
Archetypal movements: Preparatory therapeutic movements involving arms, shoulders, and head, considered valuable in the treatment of conditions such as autism, anxiety, and depression.
Image music: Guided experiences that support healing by inducing visualization and imaginal response while the music is performed.
Baksı dance: An ancient improvised therapeutic dance originating in the Altai mountain range. Shamans employed these dances to induce healing states and mobilize what might otherwise remain stagnant within the body.
Pentatonic melodies: Based on the five-tone pentatonic scale, these melodies have been associated in research with increased self-confidence and determination, including measurable improvements on instruments such as the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.
Sema / Semah: A form of sacred meditation derived from the Arabic root for listening, often associated with Sufi devotional practice involving music and whirling.
Each of these modalities warrants careful attention. This first series, however, is devoted to makams, which are arguably the most intricate and widely recognized of the six.
What Is a Makam?
Makams are the living architecture of Turkish Music Therapy: the structure within which sound moves in patterned forms capable of influencing emotion, body, and nervous system. A makam is not equivalent to a Western scale, nor is it simply a tune. It is more accurately understood as a musical framework or orientation within which creativity unfolds while retaining a recognizable identity.
Each makam contains characteristic melodic directions and recurring phrases rather than merely ascending or descending in fixed tonal intervals. They possess distinct internal movement, emotional gravity, and tension profiles. Writing about makams for the oud, Stefanos Kostopoulos defines a makam as a kind of path the music follows. It may also be understood as an orientation. According to Kostopoulos, a makam includes “key phrases and important tone centres” that allow experienced musicians to recognize its identity. Within that structure, improvisation and composition can generate tremendous variety while remaining anchored in a known base.2
For Western-trained ears, this system presents a challenge of attention and listening, since most of us are not formed from birth within modal musical systems. A skilled Turkish musician, by contrast, can often identify the makam of a composition from its core features and may join, harmonize, or improvise accordingly.
Illustration of Human Body and Maqams, Hâşim Bey (in Yalçın, Gökhan. 228).3
Historical Development of Makams
The term makam appears in Turkish musical writing in the fifteenth century. However, what later became Ottoman art music likely emerged from much earlier Central Asian traditions. Khorasan (historically Khurasan), for example, was a vibrant center of music under the Khwarazmian Empire in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Persianate in orientation and refined within a Sunni Muslim society, this music absorbed Arab and Turkic influences and achieved a high degree of development.
It is reasonable to suggest that such traditions migrated westward as intellectuals, artists, and musicians fled waves of invasion, including the Mongol incursions of the thirteenth century. Many eventually settled along the Silk Road in Anatolia. The poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, whose family moved from Balkh in ancient Khorasan to Konya, is perhaps the most well-known example of this cultural migration.
Many foundational texts on makams remain untranslated into English. For readers of Turkish, the following works, compiled by MakamNetz as part of its bibliographic foundation, provide entry points into the historical logic of the system:
Yusuf Kırşehri, Risale-i Mûsikî [1411] (Doğrusöz, 2012)
Hızır Bin Abdullah, Kitabü’l-Edvâr [1441] (Çelik, 2001)
Kadızâde Mehmed Tirevî, Risale-i Mûsikî [1492] (Uygun, 1990)
Dimitri Kantemir, Kitâbu İlmi’l-Musiki alâ Vechi’l-Hurufât [1700?] (Tura, 2002)
Kemani Hızır Ağa, Tefhîmü’l-Makamât fi Tevlîdi’n-Nağamât [1740?] (Tekin, 2003)
Abdülbaki Nasır Dede, Tedkik ü Tahkik [1794] (Tura, 2006)
Haşim Bey, Mecmûa-i Kârhâ ve Nakşhâ ve Şarkiyyât [1864] (Yalçın, 2016)
Rauf Yekta, “La Musique Turquie”, Encyclopédie de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire (Albert Lavignac, ed., 1922)
İsmail Hakkı Özkan, Türk Musikisi Nazariyatı ve Usulleri Küdüm Velveleleri, 1987
Yakup Fikret Kutluğ, Türk Musikisinde Makamlar, 20004
Why Was Makam Used Therapeutically?
In Iraq, Persia, and later Ottoman contexts, makams functioned not only as performance structures but as medical interventions. Individual makams were associated with specific bodily regions, physical conditions, and emotional states thought to respond to particular modal environments. In this way, music could be administered according to diagnosis and need.
The origins of these associations remain fragmented in my thinking. I hope to explore primary sources more deeply in future research. It is plausible that long-term observation and cumulative practice informed such correlations, transmitted from teacher to student across generations. (In master–student systems, codifying methodology often seems to be secondary to preserving results.)
At the least, evidence suggests that music therapy was integrated into broader medical practice quite early. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes), the tenth-century Persian polymath credited with establishing one of the earliest psychiatric wards, incorporated music alongside religious and cognitive therapies in treating obsessive behavior.5
Additionally, early doctors Farabi (870-950 CE) and İbn Sina (980-1037 CE) are credited with observing and writing about certain therapeutic effects of the makams. Farabi in particular wrote a work called Musiki-ul-kebir which discussed the effects of various makams.6 Much later — in the 19th century — musician, composer, and music teacher Haşim Bey discusses the therapeutic effects of makams in a larger technical work about Ottoman art music. (The illustration of the body, above, comes from that book.)7
In these early applications, musicians played for patients, and attentive listening constituted the primary therapeutic mechanism. Sufi practitioners became natural transmitters of such approaches. Their devotional practices, including sema, cultivate focused listening and embodied attention as pathways toward spiritual integration. Historical accounts indicate that hospitals were often constructed near Sufi lodges, reinforcing the interwoven development of spiritual and medical sound practices.
Makam-based medicine was also a feature of Ottoman darüşşifa. Some of these institutions were architecturally designed so that music performed in a central courtyard could resonate throughout the building. Water fountains and gardens were common features, and the sounds of flowing water and birdsong were understood to support the therapeutic atmosphere. In contemporary adaptations, water sounds are sometimes recreated manually using bowls and cups to evoke similar acoustic textures.8
Makam in Oruç Baba’s System
By my count, Oruç Baba employed sixteen makams within his therapeutic system, selecting from the many available in the broader tradition. Whether this selection reflects potency, accessibility, textual prominence, or received lineage emphasis remains unclear. His limited English-language publications make comprehensive access to his theoretical discussions challenging.
I am currently translating selected teachings into English for my own study and anticipate gaining deeper insight into his specific therapeutic rationale through that process.
What I can speak to with greater certainty is my experience within his network of former students. During time spent with several direct disciples, I participated in live music therapy sessions in which makam-based compositions were performed by the Sufi group AK Pirim Ensemble of Vienna. One composition, based on Acemasiran makam, remains vivid in memory.
Participants were invited to lie down on cushions and enter a receptive state with minimal verbal instruction. After the performance, we remained resting to allow the body and emotions to settle before sharing reflections.
My experiences of makam-based therapy fall broadly into mental, energetic, emotional, and physical categories. During the Acemasiran session, I encountered intense visionary imagery associated with creativity and divine union, accompanied by activation in the womb and a rise in sexual energy. Given Acemasiran’s traditional association with childbirth support, such sensations were not entirely unexpected.
In other sessions, primarily through recordings at home, I experienced pronounced emotional release: waves of sadness culminating in focused crying, followed by relief and diminished attachment to the memories that surfaced. On other occasions, I noticed intense hunger emerging approximately sixty to ninety minutes after listening, suggesting significant metabolic engagement during the processing of somatic shifts.
The Importance of Direct Experience
In Turkish Music Therapy, makams are intended to be experienced, not merely analyzed. For musicians, they are internalized; for listeners, they are entered.
To encounter the makams as Oruç Baba employed them therapeutically, one may turn to the recordings produced with TÜMATA. Information is available in Turkish through the TÜMATA website, and recordings can be found by searching Dr. Güvenç’s name or TŨMATA on many major music streaming platforms.
I recommend listening as one would in a live therapeutic setting: lying down comfortably, free from distraction, allowing the recording to unfold completely. High-quality headphones enhance clarity, though live performance remains ideal.
After listening, allow at least an hour before engaging in demanding mental activity, driving, or operating machinery. I do not recommend listening immediately before sleep. Though some makams may feel calming, all are designed to engage the nervous system deeply. Listening too close to bedtime may disrupt sleep or provoke early waking accompanied by strong hunger, as the body processes the session’s effects.
What are the real effects of these makams? The most reliable answer is experiential. Listen, observe, and remain attentive as this series continues, exploring the lived dimensions of each of Oruç Baba’s sixteen selected makams.
Yolun açık olsun.
May your path be open.
This essay is accompanied by an example of the music being discussed, because these traditions cannot be understood apart from direct encounter with sound. Please take time to play the provided video, above.
About the author:
Lisa England stands at the crossroads of Jewish memory, Central Asian shamanic healing, and Sufi therapeutic sound. Her work traces migratory lineages of music as medicine across medieval Central Asia and the Ottoman world, with particular attention to makams as living structures of embodied sacred medicine. Through writing, translation, and somatic practice, she seeks to uncover the therapeutic logic of these traditions.
A Jewish convert shaped by Sufism, she regards Dr. Rahmi Oruç Güvenç as a personal guide, while also working independently and without institutional affiliation. Lisa lives and works in North Africa.
Rahmi Oruç Güvenç, “TÜMATA,” Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, accessed February 2026, https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/1686/1446.
Stefanos Kostopoulos, Turkish and Arab Makams for Oud, accessed February 2026, https://www.academia.edu/33814937/Turkish_and_Arab_Makams.
Gökhan Yalçın, “Haşim Bey Mecmuasının ‘Makam ve Tonalite,’” accessed February 2026, https://www.ajindex.com/dosyalar/makale/acarindex-1423932748.pdf.
MakamNetz, “Pop-Up Note on Historical Sources Used to Create Makam Relationships,” MakamNetz, accessed February 2026, https://makamnetz-v1.vercel.app/makams.
Jaafar O. Ahmed et al., “Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya Al-Razi (Rhazes) (865–925): The Founder of the First Psychiatric Ward,” Open Access Review Article, accessed February 2026, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382268571_Abu_Bakr_Muhammad_Ibn_Zakariya_Al-Razi_Rhazes_865-925_The_Founder_of_the_First_Psychiatric_Ward.
Pınar Somakcı, “Music Therapy in Islamic Culture,” Turkish Music Portal, accessed February 2026, http://www.turkishmusicportal.org/en/articles/music-therapy-in-islamic-culture.
Yalçın, “Haşim Bey Mecmuasının ‘Makam ve Tonalite.’”
Conversations with direct students of Rahmi Oruç Güvenç at the Music Therapy Camp, May 2025. These discussions were grounded in Güvenç’s published research and transmitted teachings.