Pamir rubab
Alternate name(s)
- Long-neck lute
- Rubab-i-pamir
- Robab
Date1616-1617 ca.
Place MadePamir Mountains, Tajikistan, Asia
Place MadeKyrgyzstan, Asia
Serial No.none
SignedA Persian inscription on the lute translates: "The dearest precious rubab, heritage/inheritance in the name of Seyyed Hasan Shah, the year 1025." This date refers to the Hijri (Islamic) calendar, which correlates to the 17th century in the Gregorian calendar.DescriptionThis rubab, made in the Pamir Mountains, is likely the earliest surviving example of the instrument. Others of this name are attested as early as the 9th century. Variations of the rubab can be found throughout Central Asia, Iran, and Pakistan.
The body, neck and pegbox are made of one piece of fruit wood (plum, pear, etc.), whereby the body and half of the neck were cut out. The body is covered with leather (tacked with 8 metal nails), the upper hollowed part with a wooden top.
Originally, there were 8 cut-out notches in the leath at the end, one each per string. Old tender spots prove that formerly 8 strings were used. Two piece have since broken off. At present, the instrument has 6 strings, 5 of then hooked at the pegbox.
The pegbox and bridge are later replacements.
DimensionsOverall length: 765 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1993 from Wurlitzer-Bruck, New York, New York. Previously owned by Mamadali Yusupovich Khalikov (b. 1914), an Uzbek musicologist and composer.
Published ReferencesNMM catalog: _As Good as Gold: The First 50 Years (1973-2023)_. Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2023. (pp. 51, 56-57)
Kyle MacMillan. "On the Dakota Prairie, Where Instruments Are Fine Art," EMAg (Early Music America) 28, No. 3 (September 2022), p.47. (date is mistakenly printed as 616-617 rather than 1616-1617)
NMM Newsletter, January 1994, p. 4
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1993
Object number05580
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