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Available evidence suggests
that the long-necked bowl lute evolved
in Mesopotamia early in the second
millenium B.C. while the necked spike
lute first appeared in Egypt at about
the same time.The long-necked bowl
lutes appeared in Europe by way of Asia
Minor, and in China andIndia via Iran
and Centreal Asia. The spike bowl lutes
were distributed throughout Northern
Africa. In new Cultural settings these
instruments underwent modifications in
design and construction materials as
they were used to perform genres of
music alien to the land of their
origin.
In the near East and South and
Central Asia, the oldest inhabitants
were the Semites (western sector) and
the Dravidians (eastern sector). In the
middle of the second millenium B.C.,
"Aryan" peoples from north of the Black
Caspian sea migrated into this regions
settling in the central and eastern
sectors. Again at the end of the first
millenium A.D. Turks from Central Asia
entering this region formed the Ottoman
Empire in the western sector and the
Moghal empire in the eastern. With such
a mix up between different nations and
cultures the long-necked lute took many
forms and names.
Tanbur, Tambura : in Afghan
regions
Nefer :spiked lutes of North
Africa.
Pandour, pandir panturi, fandyr :
long necked lutes of Ancient Greece and
Byzantium
Saz : long necked lutesof Asia
minor/Turkish
Bozuq : longed necked lutes of
Arabia and vicinity
Sehtar : longed necked lutes of Iran
and vicinity
Dutar : longed necked lutes of
Afghanistan and central Asia
Sitar,Tambura : longed necked lutes
of Indian sub-continent.
It is known that prior to the era of
Muslim expansion into South Asia, there
were no musical instruments of the
long-necked lute category in the
region. The fact that the sitar is a
long-necked lute and that other
instruments of this category existed in
the near east an central asia prior to
the era of expantion suggests that
there may very well be a historical
connection between the two groups of
instruments.
The conquest of the Punjab region by
the Ghaznavids took place in the Year
1030. This marked the beginning of the
era of Muslim expantion into the region
and the establishing of Turkic and
Afghan ruling dynasties in India. It
was at this point in time that the long
necked lute arrived in India.
Drone instruments have existed in
India for more than a thousand years,
but there is no evidence that there
where any long necked type instrument
before the Muslim invasion of
India.
According to popular history it was
Amir Khusrau who "invented" the sitar.
Due to the absence of any mention of
the sitar in the writings of Amir
Khusrau (1285-1351) or in those of his
contemporaries it is unlikely that any
musical instrument with this name
existed at that time. It would be
incorrect to say that Amir Khusrau
invented this type of instrument though
he may have modified it fo the
performance of "light" Indian
genres.
Some historians think that the sitar
comes from the Uzbeck dutar, some from
the Persian setar, tarafdar sitar
etc...But we don't know which
influenced which since they existed
together for 700 years and borowed
features back and forth. Basicaly, the
muslim long necked lute influenced the
Indian stringed instruments. The sitar
evolved from a sub species of
long-necked lutes herein referred to as
the "Indian tanbur". This tanbur
developed from the Saz (Turkey) ,
Sethar (Iran), dutar,
dumbra(Afghanistan). The word sitar was
used the first time in the text :
"Aammira-raso of Jodhpur, Tajasthan,
"c.1725. The early sitar had 3 strings,
two of which are tuned in unison and
one an octave below.
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