The muwashahat, the plural of muwashah, is a genre of Arabic poetry that emerged as an innovation, deviating from the traditional rules and characteristics of classical Arabic poetry. This innovation manifested in several ways including:

• The incorporation of colloquial Arabic, Spanish loanwords.
• departures from the established meters and rhyme schemes of classical Arabic poetry.

The muwashah can be seen as a product of the cultural intermingling between the East and West during the Arab presence in Andalusia, and a response to a growing desire for a more flexible poetic form that could be easily set to music and transformed into popular songs.

This new art form quickly gained popularity and spread beyond Andalusia to the Levant, Egypt, and North Africa, exerting a profound influence on Arabic music. Originating in Andalusia in the late 9th century, the muwashah initially consisted of poems with a single meter but varied rhyme schemes.