Turkish music is divided into two categories, vocal or instrumental. Vocal music is further divided into a) religious music and b) non-religious music. The development of the musical form in the Islamic world belongs more to the Ottomans than any other state. Created on the themes of Allah and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) within the framework of the Sufi understanding, religious music is comprised of mosque music, which is vocal music that is usually extemporaneous and precedes or follows worship, and Sufi music, which consists of religious works sometimes accompanied by instruments, with the words being chanted or sung in gatherings formed around a particular Sufi line of understanding.

Among works of religious music, which although they have many common aspects also have some differences in composition and style, the following topics have a special place: the Prophet's birth, his miracles, his beautiful attributes, his virtues, his ascent to heaven, his migration, and the various stages of his life. These religious musical works about the Prophet, which are usually created with lyrics taken from the various types of Islamic/Turkish literature (usually in verse) and are formed within a framework of Turkish musical rules, are the following: