Tar (string instrument)

String instrument
Classification	Plucked
Developed	Mirza Abdollah
Playing range
(Shoor tuning)
Related instruments
Tanbur, Setar
Musicians
Mirza Abdollah, Mirza Hossein-Qoli, Ali-Akbar Shahnazi, Darvish Khan, Jalil Shahnaz, Farhang Sharif, Houshang Zarif, Mohammad-Reza Lotfi, Hossein Alizâdeh, Darius Pirniakan, Darius Talai, Hamid Motebassem Colonel Vaziri

Tar (Persian: تار‎‎) is an Iranian long-necked, waisted instrument, shared by many cultures and countries like Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Republic of Azerbaijan, and other areas near the Caucasus region. The word tār (تار) means "string" in Persian, though it might have the same meaning in languages influenced by Persian. This has led some Iranian experts to hold that the Tar must be common among all the Iranian people as well as the territories that are named as "Iranian Cultural Continuum" by the Encyclopædia Iranica.

This is claimed to be the root of the names of the Persian setar and the guitar as well as less widespread instruments such as the dutar and the Indian sitar. Though it was certainly developed in the Persian Empire, the exact region in which it was first made and played in the Persian Empire cannot be confirmed.

Tar is one of the most important musical instruments in Iran and the Caucasus. The formation, compilation, edition, and inheritance of the most authentic and most comprehensive versions of radif are all worked on tar. The general trends of Persian classical music have been deeply influenced by tar players. In 2012 art of Azerbaijani craftsmanship and performance art of the tar was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The tar appeared in its present form in the middle of the eighteenth century in Persia. The body is a double-bowl shape carved from mulberry wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb-skin covering the top.

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Wikipedia