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The tanbur (var. tanbour, tambur, tambour, tanboor) is a fretted string instrument. The two-stringed Persian-Kurdish tanbur is the forefather of all stringed instruments and dates back many thousands of years. The tanbur has a deep pear-shaped body with a very long neck. The instrument is traditionally made of mulberry wood and its frets are made of pieces of gut tied around the neck. The metal strings are fastened with front and side tuning pegs. For many centuries the pear shaped body of the instrument was carved from a single piece of wood. Ever since the 1950s the instrument has been made of bent ribs of mulberry wood, instead of the traditional single piece. The great 20th century tanbur maker Nariman along with the help of Ostad Elahi shaped the modern look of the tanbur. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
The neck of a guitar showing the first four frets. ...
A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. ...
Born on September 11, 1895, in Jeyhounabad, a small village in western Iran, Ostad Nur Ali Elahi (1895-1974) was a contemporary philosopher, jurist, and musician. ...
The tanbur and its name date way back before recorded history. Historians cannot agree about the exact origins of the tanbur, however the first documentation of its existence comes from ancient Babylon. There is also documentation in the form of Egyptian bas-relief sculptures that proves the instrument was in use in the 26th dynasty of Egypt (circa 600 B.C.). The ancient Greeks named it the pandura.
The name tanbur has unfortunately been applied to dozens of different instruments worldwide creating a great deal of confusion. The instrument is also known to have been used by the Zoroastrians and in the Sassanian courts (AD 200). Zoroastrianism was adapted from an earlier, polytheistic faith by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) in Persia very roughly around 1000 BC (although, in the absence of written records, some scholars estimates are as late as 600 BC). ...
Shah Khoshin, a saint of the Ahl-e Haqq helped popularize the instrument during the 12th century. The Kurdish tanbur and its melodies were used in spiritual gatherings or Zekr of the Ahl-e Haqq (a.k.a. Ahl-e Hakk, Ahl-I Haqq) for meditation and chanting purposes ever since the 14th century. Up to the 20th century the instrument was considered so sacred that it was not to be played for people outside of the Ahl-e Haqq jams. Its melodies and modes were so heavily guarded that they were only passed down from master to disciple. Also referred to as Yarsan or Yaresan and also Ali-Ilahis or Aliullahis by outsiders, is one of many Sufi orders in Iran, combining various syncretistic and Islamic ideas with a veneration of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of Muhammad. ...
As with the evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium, the evolution of the tanbur, its melodies, and the style of playing were also characterized by long periods of virtual standstill, punctuated by episodes of very fast development.
External links
- Tanbur Society for the preservation and propagation of the tanbur.
- Tanbur(CAIS)
- Hittite Old Tanbur Picture
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