ardin
Illustration — Noura Mint Seymali playing the ardin. The ardin is a type of traditional harp played in Mauritania. It has a resonating body made of calabash and is played by female iggawin, or griots.
ardin
Carstor · Taken by Carstor · CC BY 3.0
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Illustration — Noura Mint Seymali playing the ardin. The ardin is a type of traditional harp played in Mauritania. It has a resonating body made of calabash and is played by female iggawin, or griots.
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wikipedia incomplete · checked 25 September 2026
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Authority files
gnd · 1046004-4 · wikidata · Q6532301
In this article
Etymology
Etymology
The word ardin, possibly derived from the Fulbe word ardo, "to lead," also describes a higher tuning adopted by the lead koni (xalam) during a duet performance. Eric Charry posits that the existence of these similarities, and of the kora tuning called Hardino, demonstrates cultural diffusion among the western African sahel-savanna music system. It may also be related etymologically to tahardant, a Tuareg word for the instrument more similar in appearance to the tidinit.
History
History
French travel writer Michel Jajolet de la Courbe documented the existence of the instrument in West Africa as early as 1685. Singer and ardin player Dimi Mint Abba became renowned throughout the Muslim world after winning the 1977 Umm Kulthum song contest held in Tunis. In modern times, instruments like the ardin and the tidinit lute are increasingly supplemented or replaced by the electric guitar.
Description
The ardin is a stringed instrument constructed with a calabash sound box covered in leather, often highly decorated with paintings, with a wooden neck 100 cm (40 in) long. It typically has between 10 and 16 strings. The ardin is traditionally played by women, and is a smaller counterpart to the kora, which is played by men and has 21 strings. The strings are attached to tuning pegs on the neck and adjoin a metal plate with rings on the soundboard which vibrates when the strings are plucked. The leather sound board may also be beaten like a drum.
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1046004-4, Ardin.
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q6532301: ardin
Unverified · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Hans Hickmann: Musikgeschichte in Bildern. Band 2: Musik des Altertums. Lieferung 1: Ägypten. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1961, S. 70
- 2.Roger Blench: Reconstructing African music history: methods and results. (PDF; 2,2 MB) Safa Conference, Tucson, 17.–21 Mai 2002, Kapitel: The arched harp and its history, S. 2–6
- 3.Gerhard Kubik: Theory of African Music. Bd. I. (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology). University Press of Chicago, Chicago 2010, S. 23–25, ISBN 978-0-226-45691-1, abgebildet auch in Kubik: Zum Verstehen afrikanischer Musik. LIT Verlag, Wien 2004, Abb. 39. Basil Davidson datierte auf 800–700 v. Chr.
- 4.Gerhard Kubik: Westafrika. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Sachteil 9, 1998, Sp. 1955
- 5.Ulrich Wegner: Afrikanische Saiteninstrumente. (Neue Folge 41. Abteilung Musikethnologie V.) Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin 1984, S. 163f
- 6.Jürgen Elsner: Nordafrika. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Sachteil 7, 1997, Sp. 225f
- 7.Khalifa Ould Eide & Dimi Mint Abba: Moorish Music from Mauretania. World Circuit 1990, WCD 019
- 8.Rosa Skelton: Mauritania's fiery singing senator. BBC News, 30. April 2007
- 9.Ooleya Mint Amartichitt: Louanges / Praise Songs. CD von Long Distance, Montreuil (Frankreich) 1998
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1046004-4, Ardin.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedauthority record
Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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