Two-string fiddle of the Karakalpak, Kazakh and Kyrgyz peoples of Central Asia. It is approximately 70 cm long; its body is shaped like a deeply curved ladle and its belly is covered with camel skin. The strings are of horsehair and are tuned a 4th apart; the instrument is played with a bow of horsehair, producing a sound rich in overtones particularly in the lower register.
The qobuz is mentioned in the 10th-century document Divani-l-Lughati-t-Turk by Mahmud Kashgharyi. According to other sources the instrument originated in Samarkand and Bukhara. During the 15th and 16th centuries it was an instrument of court musical entertainment, as depicted in the miniature paintings of the Herat artist Kamal ad-Din Behzad. During the 19th century the qobuz was popular throughout Khorezm and Khiva and the fame of qobuz players spread throughout Turkestan; since then instruments such as the sato and the tanbūr have taken the place of the qobuz among the settled peoples of Turkestan, and the qobuz has become an instrument of nomadic life. In Uzbekistan it is played only by the semi-nomadic peoples of the Surkhandarya-Kashkadarya region. It is related to the Mongol hiil and was formerly associated with shamanism; shamans hung small bells on the qobuz and sang saryny.
RAZIA SULTANOVA