تنبور

The tembur is a long-necked fretted lute, from Persian tanbur (meaning to be in tune). In Persian court music, the tanbur is a classical instrument. In Kurdish Alevi tradition, the tembur is sacred. It is played during cem, the spiritual gathering where singers and dancers invoke the divine.

The tembur is not played for entertainment. It is played to facilitate trance, to align bodies and spirits, to remember the martyrs and saints of Alevi belief. The musician (called a dengbej or şair) plays while others sing. The sound is channeled through the instrument toward the divine.

For the Yezidi people, the tembur holds similar weight. It is played during religious ceremonies and family gatherings. The instrument is honored as a sacred object. To misuse a tembur is to commit sacrilege. The wood, the strings, the sound are all charged with holiness.

During Islamic State's occupation of northern Iraq and Syria, Yezidi communities were persecuted. Women and girls were enslaved. Men were killed. The tembur was nearly extinguished. After liberation, communities began reconstructing the tradition. The instrument had survived in memory, in fingers that remembered the songs, in the sacred obligation to play.