Kettledrum of the Islamic world, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is widely used in military music as well as in religious and ceremonial music (see Naqqārakhāna); it is often a symbol of royalty and is sometimes played with trumpets. Naqqāra are usually played in pairs and tuned to different pitches, exceptions being the large types from India, parts of the Caucasus and Central Asia. They are made of silver, copper, brass, wood or pottery. Naqqāra have been played in Turkey, Syria and Egypt since the Middle Ages. Carried on horseback or on camels, they are beaten with sticks, the higher-pitched of the two drums on the player’s right.
In Turkey the nakkare is an instrument of the Ottoman mehter (military or Janissary band), made of copper with a skin membrane (see Janissary music). It is played singly, held in the left hand or hung from the neck, and in pairs. In 20th-century Iran and Morocco naqqāra are usually made of pottery and the Moroccan types consist of a large and a small kettledrum laced together with gut. The naghara of Armenia is made of clay with a skin membrane and is played in sazandar and ashugh ensembles. The drums are warmed before playing so that the membrane is tightened in order to give a good sound. In the 1920s and 30s, V. Buni’s ‘Yerevan Oriental Symphony Orchestra’ used naghara with a screw tuning mechanism which enabled the instruments to be tuned in 4ths. The naghara is also known as the tabla; in Georgia it is called the diplipito. Naghara were formerly used for military and state music by the Uzbek, Uighur and Tajik peoples of Central Asia.
Local variant names and uses of the naqqāra include the nuqayra of the north African Berbers and Syrians and the nagārit which is widely used in Ethiopian military and religious music. Large kettledrums spread to India where (known as nagārā) they are used in temples for ceremonial music. In Pakistan the naqqāra is widely used for outdoor music-making. Naqqārā are played in Surinam. The naqqārā is also the instrument from which the European kettledrum and Nakers developed.
For further illustration see Nakers, fig.1.
J. Blades: Percussion Instruments and their History (London, 1970, 2/1974, rev. 3/1984)
S. Marcuse: A Survey of Musical Instruments (Newton Abbot and London, 1975), 160ff
J. Jenkins and P. Rovsing Olsen: Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London, 1976)
WILLIAM J. CONNER, MILFIE HOWELL, ROBERT AT’AYAN/R