Tabl.

Arabic generic term for drums. It is particularly applied to double-headed cylindrical drums in the Arab Middle East, including North Africa (especially Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and the Sudan). It may occur in combination with other words, indicating drums of the same type with regional differences of size or drums used in different regional combinations of instruments. The term tabl can vary from region to region; it is sporadically found as tabīl in Osmanli, and in modern Turkish the term davul is most commonly used for the double-headed cylindrical drum. The tabl baladī (‘people’s drum’) is regarded as the smaller version of the tabl turkī (‘Turkish drum’, davul).

Cylindrical drums were known in classical antiquity, and various different sizes of such instruments are still in use. The cylindrical drum is central to Islamic musical cultures; it is used in military bands and is also played at village ceremonies such as weddings, circumcisions and funerals and on religious occasions. During Ramadan, the month of fasting, the drum and zurna (surnāy) signal the time when a meal can still be eaten before sunrise. In Islamic countries the cylindrical drum is often played with the shawm in rural music and in military bands; trumpets, kettledrums and cymbals may be added to create larger ensembles.

The body of the tabl is a wooden cylinder. A head made of cowhide is stretched over each end of the cylinder and fixed in place with a wooden hoop; the edges of the skins are wrapped around the hoops, and the two hoops are linked with a tensioning lace made of string or gut. The size of the cylinder varies; drums used in military music are not always larger than those played in rural music. The tabl is played either with two sticks or with a stick and a bundle of thongs.

See also Tunisia, 2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H.G. Farmer: Islam, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, iii/2 (Leipzig, 1966, 2/1976)

J. Jenkins and P.R. Olsen: Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London, 1976)

M. Pirker: ‘Pictorial Documents of the Music Bands of the Janissaries’, International Repertory of Music RIdIM Newsletter, xv/2 (1990), 2–12

MICHAEL PIRKER