A jins (Arabic: جنس / ALA-LC: jins, pl. أجناس / ajnās) is a set of three, four, or five stepwise pitches used to build an Arabic maqam, or melodic mode. They correspond to the English terms trichord, tetrachord, and pentachord. A maqam is made up of two or more ajnas.
The word derives from the Greek word genus, meaning "type."[1]
References
Jins Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA