This volume presents the proceedings of the international congress "Rhythmic Cycles and Structures in the Art Music of the Middle East" that took place at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, on 27-28 February 2014. The congress was organized by the Ethnomusicology and European Music History Section of the Department for Musicology and Music Education in cooperation with Orient-Institut Istanbul (part of the Max Weber Foundation). The present volume follows on thematically from the book Writing the History of "Ottoman Music", which discusses the foundations and current problems of research on music and music history in the Ottoman context, thereby contributing to the development of new perspectives and methods.