Bowl lyre of Egypt, the Sudan, Djibouti, Yemen, southern Iraq and the Gulf. It was known formerly also in Zanzibar, where it was called the tambira. The name is a dialectal mutation of the classical Arabic tunbūr (lyre), a survival from a rich variety of lyres in that part of the world. Arabian authors seldom mention it, as they recognize the tunbūr as a long-necked lute, and it is this that makes it difficult to identify the instrument organologically. The more recent version, ‘tanbūra’, dates from the 19th century.
The term ‘tanbūra’, mutated from ‘tunbūr’, was borrowed by the Arabs from the Sassanids and was used for the lyre from the beginning of the Islamic era in the 7th century. It is found again in the Nile valley during the period of the Ottoman Empire, often paired with other instruments. The lyres known as tanbūra probably originated in upper Egypt and the Sudan (see also Lyre, §2).
While the instrument’s shape is the same in all types, the size varies considerably, from 70 cm for small Sudanese instruments to 1·4 metres for the tanbūra of the Yemen; the body may be up to 50 cm in diameter. Various materials are used. The body, circular or bowl-shaped, may be made from a gourd, wood or metal; in the past tortoiseshell has also been used. From the lower part of the body protrude two skin-covered arms, forming two sides of an isosceles triangle whose base is a yoke on which five or six strings are wound. These are fastened with strips of cloth or cords which can be varied in tension to alter the pitch. The strings are usually made of gut, but other materials have also been used: cotton, fibre, jute, steel, antelope tendons or ox sinews. They converge towards the lower part of the body and are held in place by a metal ring which also serves as a bridge, although most models have a separate bridge which improves the quality of the sound. The soundboard may have two holes.
The various tunings are based on one of two systems: the pentacord (five successive notes in the diatonic scale, usually C minor), used for the tanbūra of the Yemen, and the pentatonic (with or without semitones). The strings are plucked with a large horn plectrum, sometimes attached to the frame by a leather strap; performance without a plectrum has occasionally been reported in secular Sudanese music. The player holds the instrument in his arms, turning it inwards; larger instruments are placed on the ground, while smaller instruments are leant against the player’s side. The outer arm covers the lyre and picks out the melody at face level; the other holds the plectrum close to the bridge. The music is primarily melodic, but three-part harmonies tend to occur in the secular music of the Sudan. The tanbūra is now played mainly by men, a sign of the social changes brought about by the spread of Islam; previously the mi‘zaf (lyre) was played by women.
The sung repertory includes songs of war, rejoicing, love and above all the zār cult, whose ceremonies also include purely instrumental pieces. Association with the zār cult would explain the particular attention paid to decoration of the instrument, especially at Djibouti, where it is laden with ribbons, plumes, pompoms, golden balls, shells, small bells, photographs and mirrors with magical powers. In these ceremonies, it is rarely played alone; it is often accompanied by a manjūr (a belt goat-hoof rattle), worn by an acolyte dancer. The tanbūra is also accompanied by various kinds of drum: in Egypt by the tūza and the tabl, in Iraq by the kuenda played with a single drumstick and by hand. Although less favoured in the cult, the tanbūra has become very popular in the Sudan as a secular instrument, and threatens to rival the ‘ūd as the national instrument of the country.
‘Les instruments de musique en usage à Zanzibar’, RHCM, vi (1906), 165–70
G. Legrain: Louqsor sans les pharaons (Brussels and Paris, 1914)
C. Saint-Saëns: ‘Lyres et cithares’, EMDC, I/i (1921), 538–40
M. al-‘Aqīlī: al-Samā’ ‘ind al-‘arab [Music of the Arabs], iii (Damascus, 1966–78)
M. Ismail: ‘Traditional Music in the Sudan’, Creating a Wider Interest in Traditional Music: Berlin 1967, 104–11
J. Laurioz: ‘Notes sur les pratiques relatives aux génies “zār” en T.F.A I.’, Pount: Bulletin de la Société d’études de l’Afrique orientale, vii (1969), 5
J. Jenkins and P. Rovsing Olsen: Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London, 1976)
G.A. Plumley: El Tanbur: the Sudanese Lyre or Nubian Kissar (Cambridge, 1976)
S.‘A. Salih: ‘The Complexity of Music Making’, Sudanow (Jan, 1977), 29
H. Hickmann: Catalogue d’enregistrements de musique folklorique égyptienne (Baden-Baden, 1979)
S. Qassim Hassan: Les instruments de musique en Irak et leur rôle dans la société traditionnelle (Paris, 1980)
C. Poché: ‘Introduction à la musique de Djibouti’, Djibouti discographie, ed. C. Nourrit and B. Pruitt (Paris, 1982)
P. Rovsing Olsen: disc notes, Bahrein et Shardja: pêcheurs de perles et musiciens du Golfe persique, Ocora 558–583 (1982)
CHRISTIAN POCHÉ