Tanbūr (late 1800s): Art, History and Details

Tanbūr (late 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This long-necked lute collected in Ottoman Syria possesses traits that are Syrian, Turkish, and Iranian and provides an example of the musical interaction between cultures. It is an ancient instrument and resembles lutes used in Pharaonic Egypt and Mesopotamia. In its many forms, the tanbūr was a common instrument throughout the Islamic world. It is often used as a solo instrument in both sacred and secular contexts. Burn marks decorate the pear-shaped body along with inlaid dots of mother-of-pearl, which may also have helped with navigation of the fret board by the player.

Object facts

• Title: Tanbūr
• Date: late 1800s
• Culture: Syria or Turkey, Ottoman period (1299–1922)
• Type: Musical Instrument
• Technique: Wood, bone, mother-of-pearl, and wire
• Dimensions: Overall: 58.4 x 10.5 cm (23 x 4 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1918.347

A detail from the museum

The two pairs of wire strings would be played with a quill plectrum.

Collection credit

The Charles G. King Jr. collection; Gift of Ralph King in memory of Charles G. King Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (1918): 82-85.
• D. S. M. "Exhibition of Musical Instruments." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 8, no. 9 (1921): 134-43.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.