tanbūra
The tanbūra or "Kissar" is a bowl lyre of East Africa and the Middle East. Tanbūra traces its etymology to the Persian tanbur via the Arabic tunbur (طنبور), though this term refers to long-necked lutes. The instrument probably originated in Upper Egypt and the Sudan in Nubia and is used in the Fann At-Tanbura in the Persian Gulf Arab States.
tanbūra
Ji-Elle · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Field
- bowl lyre · musical instrument
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for tanbūra. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3541715
In this article
Overview
It also plays an important role in zār rituals. • Illustration — Tanbūra In Cairo, played by a Nubian, 1858 The tanbūra is a member of a family of lyres which can be found, with variations, in many areas throughout East Africa: compare the Ugandan Endongo and Kenya Nyatiti. According to ethnomusicologist Christian Poché, the Sudanese style of lyre has been played throughout "Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, North Yemen, Southern Iraq and the Gulf States." In Sudan, the tanbūra (or tanbur) The North Sudanese version is typically five-stringed with a larger size. They're decorated with beads, tassels, charms, cowrie shells, plastic fruit, and small mirrors. The tanbur player is called a sanjak, and plays it by holding it with his left hand, aided by the support of a strap. The fingers (and in the case of six-stringed versions, palm) of the left hand rest on the strings from behind. The right holds a plectrum made of bull's horn called a garin. Sound is made by plucking strings with the plectrum and moving fingers to create "free strings" (strings with fingers pressed against them have their sound dampened). The bottom rests on the ground, legs, or arm depending on size (here from biggest to smallest).
Tanbūra is a bowl lyre or musical instrument.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Tanbūra (lyre), revision 1364504982 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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.Wilhelm Stauder: Die Musik der Sumer, Babylonier und Assyrer. In: Bertold Spuler (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Orientalistik. 1. Abt. Der Nahe und der Mittlere Osten. Ergänzungsband IV. Orientalische Musik. E.J. Brill, Leiden/Köln 1970, S. 178f
- 2.Joachim Braun: Biblische Musikinstrumente. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Sachteil Band 1, Bärenreiter, Kassel und Metzler, Stuttgart 1994, Sp. 1517
- 3.Ulrich Wegner, 1984, S. 99f
- 4.J.-C. Chabrier: Ṭunbūr. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Band 10, Brill, Leiden 2000, S. 625
- 5.Francis W. Galpin: The Music of the Sumerians and their Immediate Successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1937, S. 35
- 6.Vgl. Michael Knüppel: Noch einmal zur möglichen Herkunft von osm. tambur(a)~dambur(a)~damur(a) etc. In: Marek Stachowski (Hrsg.): Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia. Bd. 14. Krakau 2003, S. 221–223
- 7.Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments of India. Their History and Development. Firma KLM Private Limited, Kalkutta 1978, S. 155
- 8.Jean Louis Burckhardt: Travels in Nubia. London 1819, S. 146 (bei Internet Archive)
- 9.Christian Poché, 2014, S. 707
- 10.Christian Poché: Beiheft der CD: Sudan. Osman, Gubara & Co. In the Kingdom of the Lyre, 2001, S. 1
- 11.George Alexander Hoskins: Travels in Ethiopia, above the second cataract of the Nile; exhibiting the state of that country, and its various inhabitants, under the dominion of Mohammed Ali ; and illustrating the antiquities, arts, and history of the ancient kingdom of Meroe. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, London 1835
- 12.Arabische Bezeichnungen nach Ulrich Wegner, 2004, S. 95; nubische Bezeichnungen nach: Artur Simon: Musik der Nubier. Doppel-CD. Museum Collection Berlin 22/23. Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin 1998, Beiheft S. 14f
- 13.Music, celebration and healing. The Sudanese lyre. The British Museum, 2015
- 14.Lisa Urkevich: Music and Traditions of the Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Routledge, London 2014, S. 143f
- 15.Artur Simon: Musik der Nubier, 1998, Beiheft S. 16f
- 16.Ulrich Wegner, 1984, S. 107
- 17.Der alternierende Gesang von Vorsänger und Chor ist auch in Ägypten die verbreitetste Form des kollektiven Singens. Vgl.: Artur Simon: Studien zur ägyptischen Volksmusik. Teil 1. Verlag der Musikalienhandlung Karl Dieter Wagner, Hamburg 1972, S. 25
- 18.Bassankob / basamkub. Europeana Collection (Foto einer Leier der Hadendoa)
- 19.Artur Simon: Sudan, §1: Music of the Muslim peoples. (ii) Music of the Nubians. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2001
- 20.Wendy James: Reforming the Circle: Fragments of the Social History of a Vernacular African Dance Form. In: Journal of African Cultural Studies, Bd. 13, Nr. 1, Juni 2000, S. 140–152, hier S. 145
- 21.Artur Simon: Sudan, §1: Islamic song and music (v) Blue Nile: Ingassana, Gumuz and Berta. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2001, S. 656
- 22.Christian Poché: Beiheft der CD: Sudan. Osman, Gubara & Co. In the Kingdom of the Lyre, 2001, S. 3
- 23.Mohamed Gubara – Nora. Youtube-Video
- 24.A. Rouaud: Zār. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, Bd. 11, 2002, S. 455b
- 25.Neil van der Linden: Zār. In: Richard C. Jankowsky (Hrsg.), 2015, S. 136
- 26.Tanja Granzow, 2008, S. 18–21
- 27.Sherifa Zuhur: Middle East in Focus: Saudi Arabia. ABC-CLIO, 2012, S. 298, ISBN 978-1598845716
- 28.Christian Poché: David and the Ambiquity of the Mizmar According to Arab Sources. In: The World of Music, Bd. 25, Nr. 2, 1983, S. 58–75, hier S. 64
- 29.Susan M. Kenyon: Zar as Modernization in Contemporary Sudan. In: Anthropological Quarterly, Bd. 68, Nr. 2 (Possession and Social Change in Eastern Africa) April 1995, S. 107–120, hier S. 110
- 30.Artur Simon: Musik in afrikanischen Besessenheitsriten. In: Artur Simon (Hrsg.): Musik in Afrika. Mit 20 Beiträgen zur Kenntnis traditioneller afrikanischer Musikkulturen. Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, 1983, S. 284–296, hier S. 291
- 31.Tanja Granzow, 2008, S. 12
- 32.Ahmad Al Safi: The zar and the tumbura cults.
- 33.G. P. Makris: Changing Masters. Spirit Possession and Identity Construction among Slave Descendants and Other Subordinates in the Sudan. Northwestern University Press, Evanston 2000, S. 56–58
- 34.Ulrich Wegner, 1984, S. 110–112
- 35.Artur Simon: Musik in afrikanischen Besessenheitsriten, 1983, S. 291f
- 36.AMAR Leading Team. amar-foundation.org
- 37.Suleman Taufiq. First Congress of Arab Music in 1932: A Richly Diverse Palette of Rhythm and Timbre - Qantara.de. en.qantara.de.
- 38.Neil van der Linden: Zār. In: Richard C. Jankowsky (Hrsg.), 2015, S. 137
- 39.Paul Collaer, Jürgen Elsner: Musikgeschichte in Bildern. Band 1: Musikethnologie. Lieferung 8: Nordafrika. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1983, S. 34
- 40.Tanja Granzow, 2008, S. 85
- 41.Tanja Granzow, 2008, S. 28f
- 42.Tanja Granzow, 2008, S. 78–83
- 43.El Tanbura
- 44.Christian Poché: Tanbūra. In: Laurence Libin (Hrsg.), 2014, S. 708
- 45.Lidwien Kapteijns, Jay Spaulding: Women of the Zār and Middle-Class Sensibilities in Colonial Aden, 1923–1932. In: Sudanic Africa, Bd. 5, 1994, S. 7–38, hier S. 11
- 46.Simon D. Messing: Group Therapy and Social Status in the Zar Cult of Ethiopia. In: American Anthropologist, New Series, Bd. 60, Nr. 6, Teil 1, Dezember 1958, S. 1120–1126, hier S. 1120
- 47.Sherifa Zuhur: Middle East in Focus: Saudi Arabia. ABC-CLIO, 2012, S. 298
- 48.Vgl. Will. C. van den Hoonard: East Africa. In: Encyclopædia Iranica
- 49.Vgl. Helene Basu: Music and the Formation of Sidi Identity in Western India. In: History Workshop Journal, Nr. 65, Frühjahr 2008, S. 161–178
- 50.Jean During: African Winds and Muslim Djinns. Trance, Healing, and Devotion in Baluchistan. In: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Bd. 29, 1997, S. 39–56, hier S. 40f
- 51.Vgl. Ahmad Sikainga: (Draft) S. 1–22, hier S. 16
- 52.Dieter Christensen: Beiheft, Titel 7 der CD: Oman. Traditional Arts of the Sultanate of Oman. UNESCO Collection D8211, veröffentlicht 1993
- 53.Ulrich Wegner, Poul Rovsing Olsen: Arabian Gulf. In: Stanley Sadie (Hrsg.): New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Bd. 1, 2001, S. 797
- 54.Iraj Bashiri: Musilims or Shamans: Blacks of the Persian Gulf. 1983, S. 1–16, hier S. 4
- 55.Neil van der Linden: Zār. In: Richard C. Jankowsky (Hrsg.), 2015, S. 138f
- 56.Lisa Urkevich: Music and Traditions of the Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Routledge, London 2014, S. 142f, 95
- 57.Dieter Christensen: Beiheft, Titel 5 der CD: Oman, 1993
- 58.Maho Sebiane: Beyond the Leiwah of Eastern Arabia Structure of a Possession Rite in the Longue Durée. In: Música em Contexto, Brasília Nº. 1, 2017, S. 13–45, hier S. 27
- 59.Lisa Urkevich: Music and Traditions of the Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Routledge, London 2014, S. 142f, 145
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
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.
Elsewhere in Collectables
20,755 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Tan Chong Motor Holdings BerhadOrganisation
- tan-tanTerminology
- tanbouTerminology
- tanburTerminology
- Tandon MotorcyclesOrganisation
- Tandy Video Information SystemTerminology
- Tandy-12Terminology
- tangent pianoTerminology
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with tanbūra?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.