What is the reason why traditions back so many thousands of years still exist in the XXI. Century? Neither time nor history could charm them away. For some reason they resisted foreign powers and influence. Though they still change but their universality is in the changing. The form is constant - only the content changes. Such an ancient musical tradition is the maqam. It exists in the most varied of forms. This universal musical form manifested in the physical world to carry the primordially of the human soul. It expresses it's continuity and the timelessness and the eternity of its presence. It is a sacred phenomenon of music. There are equivalents of the maqam in various cultures. The Indian raga principally is the same system. A universal form of musical expression. As these form roots not in the physical world, this is why they can stand against outer interventions of any kind