Introduction

Arab music: history and evolution
by Ali Jihad Racy and Jack Logan, Professor of Music at San Diego State University (classicalarabicmusic.com)

Arab musical life throughout history
by Habib Hassan Touma (extracts from The Music of the Arabs, 1996)

Arab music - Wikipedia

The Story of Arabic Music
by Wafaa' Salman (al-Wafaa News, Spring, 1993)

Music samples
(classicalarabicmusic.com)

Musical instruments
al-Bab's guide

The Arabic Music Page
This grew of out a Usenet discussion group (rec.music.arabic). Visually, it's still rather basic, but with a wealth of information.

Solo improvisation (taqasim) in Arab music
by Scott Marcus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, July 1993)

Historical and contemporary recordings of Middle Eastern music in the United States
by Anne K. Rasmussen (Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, December 1997)

Music and Islam

"Music is a useless activity which, in fact,
is a state of passiveness"

The legitimacy of music is much debated in Islam. Although religious chanting is accepted and even encouraged, there are questions about other forms of music, especially instrumental music. The following articles illustrate the arguments:

Music and singing in the light of the Qur'an and Sunnah
An online book by Abu Bilal Mustafa al-Kanadi

A topic of dispute in Islam: music
By Mustafa Sabri

Music and religion
Oman Centre for Traditional Music

Some examples of religious "natural" (unaccompanied) music:

Adhan
The call to prayer.

Complete recitation of the Qur'an
By Shaikh abd ur-Rahman as-Sudais and Shaikh Su'ood as-Shuraim

The sounds of Islam
Complete recitations of the Qur'an by 271 different reciters

The Qur'an recited
An article about the recitation of the Qur'an by Prof Mahmoud Ayoub of Temple University(Middle East Studies Association Bulletin)

Islamic music - Wikipedia