Description
The Persian Tanboor by Mofakheri is a handmade devotional lute from the sacred-music tradition of Western Iran — a soft-spoken, finger-played instrument whose dry, meditative voice has carried Kurdish and Yarsan hymns for generations. Built from aged mulberry with a slender walnut neck, it belongs to the long-necked lute family at the heart of our string instruments collection.
A Voice Built for Devotional Music
Unlike the brighter, plectrum-driven lutes of the region, the tanboor speaks in a dry, ascetic sonority — quiet, hypnotic, and unhurried. It is the sacred instrument of the Ahl-e Haqq (Yarsan) communities of Kermanshah and Lorestan, where it accompanies sacred hymns (zekr) and ceremonial chant. That devotional role shapes everything about the instrument: it rewards patience and touch over volume, and its sustained, droning resonance suits meditation as naturally as performance. The twentieth-century master Ostad Elahi drew an entire repertoire of more than a hundred pieces from the persian tanboor, much of it still central to players today.
Mulberry, Walnut, and Fourteen Tied Frets
The pear-shaped bowl is carved from seasoned mulberry, built up from glued ribs and closed with a mulberry soundboard pierced by small patterned sound-holes. Mulberry gives the tanboor its signature voice: warm and clear on top, gently sustaining underneath. The slender walnut neck carries the tuning pegs and fourteen tied gut frets, set in a semi-tempered chromatic scale. Because the frets are tied on rather than fixed, the player can nudge each one by a hair to fine-tune the microtonal intervals that Kurdish and Yarsan modes depend on.
Played with the Bare Fingers
The Persian tanboor carries three strings arranged in two courses — a single upper string and a doubled lower course. It is sounded not with a plectrum but with the bare fingers, using the fluid five-finger shor technique brought to the instrument by Ostad Elahi. The doubled course adds shimmer and sustain, while the lowest string often rings as a steady drone beneath the melody — the continuous, meditative texture that defines tanboor music.
| Maker | Mofakheri – Iran |
| Body & Soundboard | Aged mulberry |
| Neck & Pegs | Walnut |
| Frets | 14 tied gut frets |
| Strings | 3 strings in 2 courses (single upper + doubled lower) |
| Scale Length | 71 cm |
| Total Length | 92 cm |
| Bowl Dimensions | 36 × 19 × 16 cm |
| Weight | 0.70 kg |
| Tuning | Fourths / fifths; lowest string as drone |
| Playing Technique | Finger-played (no plectrum) |
| Origin | Iran |
Who Plays the Persian Tanboor
This tanboor suits players of Yarsan and Kurdish devotional music, students of Persian classical repertoire exploring the long-necked lutes, and meditation practitioners drawn to its hypnotic, droning resonance. Its close cousin is the Persian setar, which belongs to the same tanbur family of long-necked lutes; players moving between the two will find the tanboor simpler in its string layout but deeper in its devotional character.
Care and Setup
Keep the Persian tanboor away from direct heat and sudden changes in humidity, and store it in a case when it is not in use; if it will sit unplayed for a long stretch, ease the string tension. The tied gut frets can be repositioned at any time to refine intonation. Before shipping, every Mofakheri tanboor is reviewed by our string specialist Sertan Sarioglu for tuning stability, fret positioning, and string response, from our Brisighella, Italy showroom.
Tune your tanboor with the free online Tapadum Tuner, which offers a chromatic mode and string presets.
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