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The ancient Greek Pandoura (pandora) was a long-necked lute with a small resonating chamber. Some versions may have had three strings and were also known as the trichordon (McKinnon 1984:10). Donald Gill (1984) suggests that the larger instruments of this type were called mandore or mandola while the smaller ones were called mandolin and mandolino. In the eighteenth century the pandurina (mandore) came to be referred to as the Milanese mandolin.

A good source of information about it would be: J.W. McKinnon "Pandoura" in New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments Vol 3 pg 10 ed S. Sadie (Macmillan Press, London 1984).

External links

Tanbur Society for the preservation and propagation of the tanbur.
Nay-Nava the Encyclopedia of Persian Music Instruments
Hittite Old Pandura Picture

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-A '''Pandura''' ('''tanboura''', '''tanbur''', '''tambora''', '''mandore''', '''pandore''', '''bandora''', '''bandoer''', etc.) is an ancient oriental [[stringed instrument]], a member of the [[lute]] family, having a long neck, a highly-vaulted back, and originally two or three strings plucked by the fingers.
+The ancient Greek Pandoura (pandora) was a long-necked lute with a small resonating chamber. Some versions may have had three strings and were also known as the trichordon (McKinnon 1984:10). Donald Gill (1984) suggests that the larger instruments of this type were called mandore or mandola while the smaller ones were called mandolin and mandolino. In the eighteenth century the pandurina (mandore) came to be referred to as the Milanese mandolin.
-== Encyclopædia Britannica ==
+A good source of information about it would be: J.W. McKinnon "Pandoura" in New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments Vol 3 pg 10 ed S. Sadie (Macmillan Press, London 1984).
-There were in antiquity at least two distinct varieties of pandura, or tanbur.
-# The more or less pear-shaped type used in [[Assyria]] and [[Persia]] and introduced by way of [[Asia Minor]] into [[Greece]], whence it passed to the [[Roman Empire]]. In this type the body, when the graceful inward curves which led up gradually from base to neck were replaced by a more sloping outline, approximated to an elongated triangle with the corners rounded off.
-# The oval type, a favorite instrument of the [[Egypt]]ians, also found in ancient Persia and among the Arabs of North Africa, who introduced it into [[Spain]]. Our definite knowledge of the pandura is derived from the treatise on music by [[Farabi]], the Arab/Persian scholar who flourished in the [[10th century]]. He mentions two kinds of tanburs, devoting to each a chapter, i.e. the tanbur of [[Khorasan]], the Persian type, and the tanbur of [[Bagdad]], the Assyrian variety; these differ in form, in length, and in the arrangement of the frets. Unfortunately, Farabi does not describe the shape of the body, being more concerned with the musical scale and compass of the instrument; but means of identification. are supplied by ancient monuments. There is a tanbur on an Assyrian basrelief of the reign of Assur-nasir-pal, c. 880 B.C. (British Museum), on a slab illustrating camp life; the musician is playing on a pear-shaped tanbur with a very long slender neck, which would have served for two strings at the most, while two men, disguised in the skins of wild beasts, are dancing in. front of him.
-There were in Farabis day five frets at least, whereas on the tanbur of Khorasan there were no fewer than eighteen, which extended for half the length of the instrument. Five of these frets were fixed or invariable in position., the thirteen others being interpolated between them. The fixed frets, counting from the nut, gave an interval of one tone to the first, of a fourth to the second, of a fifth to the third, of an. octave to the fourth, and of a major ninth to the fifth, thus providing a succession of fourths and fifths. The additional frets were placed between these, so that the octaves generally contained seventeen intervals of one-third tone each. The two principal accordances for the tanbur of Khorasan were the marriage when the strings. were in unison, and the lute or accordance in fourths. Farabi mentions a tail-piece or zobalba, to which the strings, generally two in number but sometimes three, were attached; they rested on a bridge provided with as many notches as there were strings. In the tanbur of Khorasan they were wound round pegs placed opposite each other in the two sides of the head, as in the modern violin.
-[[Pollux I]] states that the pandura was invented by the Assyrians or Egyptians, and had three strings. [[Theodore Reinach]] is of opinion that pandura was a generic term for instruments of the lute type during the Roman and Alexandrine periods. This may be the case, but from the modern standpoint we cannot in our classification afford to disregard the invariable characteristics observed in the modern, no less than in the ancient and medieval, tanburs or panduras.
-To be able to identify the pandura it is as well to bear in mind the distinctive features of other instruments with which it might be confounded. The tanbur had a long neck resembling a section of a cylinder and a highly vaulted back, and its strings were plucked. In the rebab the neck was wanting or at best rudimentary, consisting of the gradual narrowing of the body towards the head, and during the Middle Ages in Europe, as rebec, it was always a bowed instrument. The early lutes had larger bodies than tanburs, the neck was short compared to the length of the body, the head was generally bent back at right angles, and the convex was not so deeply vaulted as that of the tanbur. The barbiton or bass lute had a long neck also, but wider, to take six, seven, or even nine strings, and from the back or profile view the general appearance was what is known as boat-shaped.
-Under the Romans the pandora had become somewhat modified. The long neck was preserved but was made wider to take four strings, and the body was either oval or slightly broader at the base, but without the inward curves of the pear-shaped instruments. A striking example of the former is to be seen among the marbles of the Townley Collection at the British Museum on a bas-relief illustrating the marriage feast of Eros and Psyche, a Roman sculpture assigned to C. 150 B.C. This example is of great value to the archaeology of music, for the instrument can be studied in full and in profile. The arrangement of the four pegs in the back of the head is Oriental.
-The Persians had a six-stringed tanbur, which they distinguished. See Daremberg and Saglio, ''Dict. des antiquités grecques et romaines'', article Lyre, p. 1450; also ''Revue des etudes grecques'', viii. 371, &c., with illustrations, some of which might be classified as early [[lute]]s, owing to the absence of the characteristic long neck of the tanburs.
-In the miniatures of the Cantigas there are oval tanburs with as the scheschta, whereas a three-stringed variety was known as the schrud.
-The tanbur survived during the [[Middle Ages]] and as late as the [[18th century]]; it may be traced in the musical documents of several countries. In England the name of pandura or bandoer was given to an instrument with wire strings having no characteristic structural feature in common with the ancient tanbur but resembling the [[cittern]]. The bandoer had a flat back and sound-board joined by ribs having a wavy outline. A smaller size of the same instrument was called ''orphoreon'', and a larger and wider penorcon: these are described and figured by Praetorius, who suggests that this instrument, invented in England as bandoer, is probably similar to the Greek irai&Opa. This bandora, we learn from an entry in [[Sir Philip Leycester]]'s index to his commonplace book of 1575, was invented by 'John Rose dwellinge in Bridewell anno 4t0 Elizabeth, who left a sonne farre exceedinge himself in makinge instruments'.
-A [[17th century]] French MS. (Add. 30342, fol. 144) in the British Museum, containing drawings of musical instruments, gives the tambora, not the English hybrid, btit a true descendant of the ancient Oriental tanbur, with nine strings, a rose sound-hole and seven frets; the French writer erroneously states that it is similar to the cistre (cittern). [[Filippo Bonanni]] gives an illustration of the same kind of instrument, with ten strings in five pairs of unisons, and calls it pandora.
-== Iranian/Kurdish view and usage ==
-Tanbour/Tanbur/Tanbor, a Lute-like instrument is the most genuine Iranian musical instrument with which half of the world are acquainted. One of the branches of Tanbour is called Barbados or harper. With the advent and growth of Islam this genuine Iranian musical instrument traveled around the world and is being now used from China up to Italy. Statues unearthed from [[Shush]] and dating back to 1500 years ago as well as those excavated in [[Haft Tappeh]] are proof of the genuine Iranian origin of this ancient instrument
-Tanbour (a Lute or harp like instrument) is the oldest and most genuine Iranian musical instrument and nowadays nearly half of the people around the world are acquainted with this ancient Iranian instrument and are using it in different parts of the world under different names.
-This ancient instrument with is heavenly and ravishing sound is used in many countries specially in China, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) such as Azarbaijan and Armenia and other countries. It is specially revered by native Iranians who during their collective or individual prayers use the Tanbour to commune with God and believe it helps them to approach the Almighty.
-From ancient times the Tanbour  was played in Iran and specially in western regions, Khorassan province and Persian Gulf and Lorestan suburbs as well as Kaneqahs (hermitages) for praise of God and prayers.
-=== Dictionaries  ===
-==== Husseinali Mallah's musical dictionary  ====
-Tanbour, as described in dictionary of musical instruments by Husseinali Mallah
-Tanbour, is a branch of Iranian family of musical instruments. After providing a brief history about the Tanbour Mallah says: "When this sound compartment of the Tanbour gradually became elliptical in shape one end of the oval instrument was lengthened and narrowed little by little and when it was called harper or aggaloch that its handle had grown longer and the resounding bowl of the instrument had grown bigger. This meant the invention of a new family of Tanbour. It has been called by different names in various regions including Tanbour in Iran."
-In the opinion of Farmer with the spread of the Islamic religion around the world the impact of this Iranian musical instrument spread in every corner and even in such remote regions where Islam had failed to penetrate i.e., to shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the west, to Siberia in the north and to confines of India and islands located in the eastern wing of India.
-Tanbour known as Tanboureh in Iran's neighboring countries gradually arrived in China and changed its name into Tanpoula. In Greece it was called Tampouras. From Greece the Tanbour traveled to Albania and was renamed Tamoura. In Russia it was christened Dumbra and in Siberia and Mongolia they called it Dumbra or Dumbereh. However during the Byzantine empire they called it Pandora and other European tribes became acquainted with that instrument through Byzantine. The instrument is popular in Turkey and India as well.
-==== Reyman musical dictionary ====
-In Reyman musical dictionary, reference is made to Tanbour (p. 1319): "Making of tambourine was an Iranian and Arab art and the instrument is from the family of aggaloch." Reyman believes that the instrument was called Tambouri in India which undoubtedly was the same Iranian Tanbour. In Italy it is called Tamburo and in Caucasus it is named Tampour. The Armenians also call it Tambour.
-==== The Graw Musical Dictionary  ====
-The Graw Musical Dictionary says the term tambourine was changed into different appellation in the difficult dialects of various nations. The Encyclopedia Britannica says Tanbour is a long-necked lute played under various names from the Balkans to Northwest Asia. Closely resembling the ancient Greek pandoura and the long lutes of ancient Egypt and Babylon, it has a deep, pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and 2 to 10 double courses of metal strings fastened with front and side tuning pegs without a pegbox.
-The Tanbour has remained popular since medieval times. Its derivatives include the Greek buzuki, the Romanian tamburitza, and the Indian sitar and tambura.
-Tanboura is an instrument invented in the East from the family of the aggaloch with a long handle and two or three strings which is played by the fingers. The most ancient trace of this instrument were the images discovered in Bani Yunos and Keyvan hills, in Mosul. From these images one can deduce that these instruments closely resembled the present guitar. They held a very long and thin handle with a delicate bowl with a proper covering.
-Statutes unearthed in [[Shush]] belong to 1500 years B.C. and those discovered at [[Haft Tappeh]] display the antiquity of the instrument.
-==== Zax Musical Dictionary  ====
-In Zax, which is a complete dictionary of musical instruments, it is said: The Persian, Kurdish and Hebrew guitar resembles the egg with a long handle and in fact the guitar fabrication was the first step by mankind to develop and refine such instruments. As a whole one can study the changes in the outside appearance of the tanbour from the Assyrian age to present time. Nowadays Tanbour belongs to a large mass of human community.
-=== Sufi ( [[Ahl-e haqq]]) ===
-Sufis use music as a means of getting to a trancelike state of ecstasy to achieve mystical revelation (vision). Similarly, music for the Kurdish faith group, [[Ahl-e Haqq]], use the string instrument called a tanbur (tunbur) as their exclusive sacred musical tool for djamm gatherings (devotional/liturgical ceremonies).
-Sufi mystics excel at symbology. As Huston Smith explains in his book, The World's Religions, symbols are to religion what numbers are to scientists. He quotes al-Ghazali's definition of symbolism as the science of the relation between multiple levels of reality. In this vein, the Kurdish sacred tanbur music notes could be considered the symbols used to reach a divine reality. On an existential plane of a parallel spiritual reality, old American mountain bluegrass would be the second cousin of traditional Kurdish tanbur music. Or, perhaps it's because of an association made through the winds of all the mountains all over the world Kurdish music grew wings strong enough to fly free. The tanbur is a joyful branch of cultural identity for Kurds. Specifically the tanbur has defined, and is being recorded by Ali Akbar Moradi, the 72 maqams that are the beautiful voice for the Kurdish Yarsan [[Ahl-e Hagh]] people nestled in the extremely remote mountain ranges of Iran before their voice becomes lost to the sands of time.
-=== Sample sounds ===
-*[http://www.dejkam.com/music/iran_traditional/instruments/tanbur/samples/tanbur.mp3 dejkam.com Tanbur]
-*[http://www.dejkam.com/music/iran_traditional/instruments/daf/samples/daf-tanbur.mp3 dejkam.com Tanbur & Daf (Kurdish)]
-*[http://www.dejkam.com/music/iran_traditional/instruments/daf/samples/daf-tanbur2.mp3 dejkam.com Tanbur & Daf (Kurdish)]
 ==See also==
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 *[[Music of Iran]]
 *[[Bandura]]
-==References==
-{{1911}}
 ==External links==
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 *[http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/art/pictures/hittitemusic.jpg Hittite Old Pandura Picture]
-{{Iranian musical instruments}}