One study has identified the name "tanbūr" as being derived from pandur, a Sumerian term for long-necked lutes.[2] Lutes have been present in Mesopotamia since the Akkadian era, or the third millennium BCE.[1]Al-Farabi described a Baghdad tunbūr, distributed south and west of Baghdad, and a Khorasantunbūr found in Persia.[1] This distinction may be the source of modern differentiation between Arabic instruments, derived from the Baghdad tunbūr, and those found in northern Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, from the Khorasan tunbūr.[1]
Instruments
Bulgarian tambura.
Iranian setar.
According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "terminology presents a complicated situation. Nowadays the term tanbur (or tambur) is applied to a variety of distinct and related long-necked lutes used in art and folk traditions. Similar or identical instruments are also known by other terms:"[1]