What is the tanbur?
The tanbur is a plucked string instrument with a pear-shaped body and a long neck, played and made in western Iran, especially in the provinces of Kermanshah, Kurdistan and Lorestan. In Kurdish it is also called temûre, temyere or temûr. In Iran today, “tanbur” usually means this Kermanshahi tanbur.
At a glance
Family: long-necked plucked lutes, related to the dotar and setar.
Size: about 80–90 cm long.
Body: usually mulberry wood, carved from a single piece or built from several glued staves.
Neck: usually walnut, with 13 or 14 tied frets.
Strings: today usually three metal strings, two of them paired and tuned in unison.
Playing: without a plectrum, using the fingers of the right hand.
The sacred instrument of the Yarsan
For the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq), the tanbur is a sacred instrument. In the jam, the Yarsan ritual gathering, sacred verses (kalam) are sung to the tanbur, and the daf is usually the only other instrument beside it. Many tanbur melodies, called maqams, come from this ritual tradition. That is why, for many players, the tanbur is more than an instrument: it is treated with respect and played with its own etiquette.
From the jamkhaneh to the concert stage
Until the mid-20th century the tanbur was played mostly in jamkhanehs and private gatherings. From the 1970s, through players such as Seyed Amrollah Shah-Ebrahimi, Keykhosrow Pournazeri and the Shams Ensemble, Ali Akbar Moradi, and Seyed Khalil Alinejad with the Baba Taher ensemble, it reached concert stages, radio and recordings. Today it has students across Iran and abroad. Read the story in History.
Instruments it is confused with
Setar: larger body, shorter neck, more frets including microtonal ones; played with the nail of the index finger.
Khorasani dotar: two strings, different right-hand technique, and the regional music of Khorasan.
Other tanburs of the region: in Iraq, Turkey and Central Asia there are instruments called tanbur or tambur. The Turkish tambur and the Kurmanji tembûr (the saz or bağlama) are not the same as the Kermanshahi tanbur.
In this section
To see the instrument in action, watch the instrument introduction videos.
Sources: Mohammad-Reza Darvishi, Encyclopedia of the Musical Instruments of Iran; “Tanbūr” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Hassan, Morris, Baily, During); Wikipedia.
About the tanbur: What is the tanbur? · History · Construction · Tuning and technique · Maqams · Makers and Fash village · Buying and care · Where to start