From the "Way more than you want to know" Department--

When played in D, the Makam Hijaz is actually called Makam Shahnaz--the proper name for it it in C is Makam Hijaz Kar, in G it is Makam Shadd Arban, and in A it is Makam Suzidil--Makams tend to be a combination of tetrachords(four consecutive notes), with different interval patterns having different names--and this makam is consists of two Hijaz tetrachords(Hijaz has the pattern halfstep-step and a half-halfstep), one starting on the fundamental, D, and one starting on the dominant, A--In Arabic music, the Eb tends to be played a bit higher and the F# a bit lower so the 1 1/2 step interval is softened slightly.

A kind of funny thing is that, though Middle Eastern melodies often use a slightly different makam ascending and descending, Miserlou does not--Hijaz is one of the most commonly used tetrachords, though, so it seems natural that Miserlou, which uses two of them, would be one of the most popular songs-