The Ottoman Tanb-r provides a detailed study of the history of this long-necked lute-like instrument, its role in Ottoman music, construction and playing technique. Tanb-rs are played in the art, Su^fi^, and folk musical traditions along the Silk Road and beyond. In Turkey, the name tanb-r is mainly used as a name for the long-necked tanb-r of Ottoman art music, the Ottoman tanb-r. The origin and early development of the Ottoman tanb-r is, notwithstanding its importance, still not fully understood due to the absence or scarcity of literary and iconographical sources, while well-preserved Ottoman tanb-rs are rare or non-existent. The book explores the political and cultural-historical conditions that contributed to the development of a distinct Ottoman Art music (Osmanli san-at m-s-si) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the central place given to the tanb-r. Thereafter, Ottoman art music and the Ottoman tanb-
