In the beginning, muwashshah represented a variety of poetic meters and schemes, ending with a verse in Ibero-Romance.[1] It marked the first instance of language mixing in Arab poetry as well as the syncretism of Arab and Hispanic cultures.[1] The muwashshah remained sung in Standard Arabic although its scheme and meter changed and the Ibero-Romance ending was added.[1] In spite of its widespread popularity and its favorability among Mashreqi critics, the muwashshah remained a form inferior to classical Arabic forms that varied only minimally in the courts of the Islamic west, due to the folksy nature of the muwashshah.[1] The muwashshah has gained importance recently among Orientalists because of its connection to early Spanish and European folk poetry and the troubadour tradition.[1]