Tembur
Kurdish Tanbur Nowadays Kermanshahan tanbur (or Kurdish tanbur or tembûr or tanboor or tanbour) is played all over Iran, and that is what is called just "tanbur" in Iran nowadays.
Kurdish tanbur is mainly designed in
Kermanshahan (about
Kermanshah Province),
Kurdistan Province and
Lorestan. Kermanshahan tanburs are more famous and accepted and are specially designed in Kermanshah's
Goran Region and
Sahneh. There is also a
Taleshi tanbur in small region
Talesh in the north of Iran, and
Tanburak (
Tanburg) in
Balochistan in the southeast of Iran. But Kermanshahan tanbur is the main and the most famous tanbur in Iran. The Kurdish tanbur has a narrow pear-shaped body that normally is made with 7 to 10 glued together separate ribs. Its soundboard is usually made of
mulberry wood and some patterned holes are burned in it. The long neck is separate, and has three metal strings that the first
course is double. The melody is played on the double strings with a unique playing technique with three fingers of the right hand. Kurdish tanbur is associated with the
Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran. It measures 80 cm in height and 16 cm in breadth. The Afghan tanbur has sympathetic strings. • The Tajik/Uzbek tanbur has four metal strings that run over a small loose bridge to a bit of wood at the edge of the body. It is always played with a wire plectrum on the index-finger. Its body is carved from a hollowed out piece of mulberry wood, and the front is made from mulberry. Its neck is often decorated with inlay bone or white plastic. • The
Uyghur tembor is played in
Sinkiang. Its neck is very long (almost 5 feet long) and has five friction pegs. It has five metal strings that are in fact three courses, both first (fingered) and third are double. • Similar instruments include the
Tambura,
Tamburica, and the Ukrainian
bandura. The Greek
tambouras is a long-neck fretted instrument of the lute family, similar to the Turkish
saz and the Persian
tanbur. Furthermore, the fretted Tanbur influenced the design of many instruments other than those above, notably: • The
baglama (saz) is found in the
Caucasus,
Iran,
Turkey, northern
Syria, western
Iraq, and
Southeast Europe. • The
tanbūra (lyre) is a
bowl lyre of the
Middle East and
East Africa. It takes its name from the Persian
tanbur via the
Arabic tunbur (طنبور), though this term refers to
long-necked lutes. and is used in the
Fann At-Tanbura in the
Persian Gulf Arab states. == See also ==