The number of ribs traditionally amounts to 17, 21 or 23, yet examples with slightly wider and consequently fewer ribs (7, 9 or 11) can also be found among older specimens. The shell ( Tekne) is assembled from strips of hardwood called ribs joined edge to edge to form a semi-spherical body for the instrument. Tamburs are made almost entirely of wood. JSTOR ( January 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. The modern instrument also has four pairs or courses of strings. The name (and its variants such as tambouras, dombura) also denotes a wide spectrum of pear-shaped string instruments in Persia and Central Asia yet these share only their names with the Ottoman court instrument and in fact are more akin to bağlamas or sazes.īy the 15th century, the tambur had assumed the modern shape, being described by Tinctoris in 1480 as being like "a large spoon with three strings." By 1740, when Jean-Étienne Liotard painted his painting, the instrument in his painting has pegs for 8 strings, which are strung in four courses. The name itself derives from the tanbur (tunbur), which in turn might have descended from the Sumerian pantur. One suggests that it descended from the kopuz, a string instrument still in use among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and the Caspian region.
There are several hypotheses as to the origin of the instrument.
See also: Lute § History and evolution of the lute