Êzîdî Musical Instruments: Organology, Construction and Ritual Status

Organology is the study of the construction and classification of musical instruments. This article treats the instruments of the Êzîdî as sonic and cultural objects: their construction, their material, their sound, their social and, in the case of two of them, their sacred status. It is explicitly not about artists, genres or songs; that is the subject of the article Êzîdî Music. Who may play which instrument and when says more in Êzîdîtî than mere timbre: the instruments divide sharply into a sacred and a profane sphere, and this division follows the same logic as the clergy and the purity order of the community.

Important first: The Êzîdî (Êzîdî) venerate Tawûsî Melek, the highest of the seven angels and the faithful viceroy of the one God Xwedê. He is never a “devil” or “Şeytan”, this equation is a refuted foreign slander (see Tawûsî Melek). Instrument names follow the Kurmancî-Latin spelling here.

1. The bipartition: sacred and folk instruments

The musical instrumentarium of the Êzîdî falls into two clearly separated classes:

1. Sacred instruments: the Def (frame drum) and the Şibab/Şimşal (flute). They are not ornaments and not concert gear, but liturgical implements. They may be played exclusively by the Qewwal, the professional hymn singers from the twin villages of Başîqa and Bahzanê, and only within the ritual frame (Kreyenbroek & Rashow 2005; Amy de la Bretèque & Omarkhali 2019).
2. Folk (profane) instruments: Tembûr/Saz, Erbane/Daf in secular use, Zirne and Dahol, Bilûr and Kemança. They accompany weddings, festivals and the line dance Govend; anyone may play them, and they are not exclusively Êzîdî but part of the shared Kurdish and Middle Eastern instrument world.

The boundary does not run between “drum” and “flute” but between Tawûsgêran/Lalîş on the one side and Dawet/Cejn (wedding/festival) on the other, between consecrated and everyday sound. Tellingly, the frame drum bears the same basic name in both worlds (Def/Daf/Erbane), yet is rendered either sacred or profane through player, place and occasion.

2. The sacred instruments of the Qewwal

Only two instruments accompany the sacred hymns (Qewl) of the Êzîdî, and only the clergy in the form of the Qewwal may let them sound in public: the Def and the Şibab. Lay Êzîdî may hear the Qewls and hear the instruments, but may not play them in ritual (Kreyenbroek 1995; Kreyenbroek & Rashow 2005).

Both instruments have a cosmological meaning beyond their sound. In the creation hymns Def and Şibab appear as symbols of the heavenly bodies: connected with the Êzîdî veneration of sun and moon and their angels (Melek Şêşims/Şemsedîn and Melek Fexredîn). Estelle Amy de la Bretèque and Khanna Omarkhali have linked this idea with the Pythagorean image of the harmony of the spheres (music of the spheres): the sacred instruments sound because the cosmos sounds (Amy de la Bretèque & Omarkhali 2019). Thus the Def is far more than a drum, it is a piece of creation made audible.

2.1 Def (frame drum)

The Def (Kurmancî def; Arabic دف daff; in scholarship often written daf) is a frame drum: organologically a membranophone of the “flat wooden hoop with single-sided head” type.

Construction and material:

• A round, flat wooden hoop of about 40–60 cm in diameter and only a few centimetres deep.
• Single-sided head of goat or sheep skin (natural hide), traditionally moistened and stretched over the hoop; the head tension, and thus the pitch, reacts sensitively to heat and humidity, which is why the drum is often “tuned” near warmth before playing.
• On the inner rim, frequently small metal rings (jingles) that resound when struck and shaken and produce the characteristic shimmering overtone.

Sound and playing technique: Struck with both hands, deep bass stroke (dum) in the centre, bright rim stroke (tek) on the hoop –, supplemented by the jingle of the rings. The Def belongs to the millennia-old ancient Oriental frame-drum tradition that reaches back to Sumerian depictions (Açıkyıldız 2010).

Ritual status: Among the Êzîdî the Def in its consecrated use is the instrument of the Qewwal. It accompanies the Qewls at the great festivals, at initiations and commemorative days, but above all at the peacock procession Tawûsgêran and at the ceremonies in Lalîş, when the Sanjak (the bronze peacock effigy) is carried from village to village. (For the secular variant of the same drum, the Erbane, see Section 3.2.)

2.2 Şibab / Şimşal (flute)

The Şibab (also Şıbab, Şimşal; Arabic شباب) is the second sacred sound source, an end-blown longitudinal flute (aerophone).

Construction and material:

• A long tube of reed (bamboo) or wood, about 60–80 cm long.
• Seven finger holes: a number that corresponds to the Seven Angels (Heft Sirr) and gives the flute additional symbolic depth.
• Blown without a mouthpiece at the edge: the player directs the air stream against the sharp edge of the upper tube end; from this arises the breathy, overtone-rich tone typical of the family of Middle Eastern longitudinal flutes (Persian Ney).

Sound and repertoire: Orally transmitted melodic modes (related to the Middle Eastern Maqam world) are firmly assigned to particular Qewls; the Êzîdî describe them with their own categories (bilind “high”, giran “heavy/measured”, bi lez “fast”). The flute carries the melodic line, the Def the pulse (Amy de la Bretèque & Omarkhali 2019).

Kinship: The Şibab is organologically closely related to the Persian Ney and to the profane Kurdish shepherd’s flute Bilûr (Section 3.5), the same type of flute, but with an entirely different social and ritual status: one accompanies the revelation, the other the flock of sheep.

3. Folk instruments

Outside the Qewwal ritual, Êzîdî folk music draws on the shared instrumentarium of the Kurdish and Middle Eastern world. These instruments are profane: anyone may play them, they carry no sacred status, and they are not exclusively Êzîdî. Their place is the wedding (Dawet), the festival (Cejn) and the line dance Govend: not the temple.

3.1 Tembûr / Saz (long-necked lute)

The Tembûr (also Tenbûr; related to Saz / Bağlama) is a long-necked lute (chordophone) with deep Sasanian–ancient Mesopotamian roots.

Construction and material:

• Pear-shaped body, traditionally made of 7 to 10 wooden ribs glued together (bowl construction), often of mulberry wood; the soundboard of mulberry wood bears small burned-in or drilled sound holes.
• Long neck of walnut with tied frets (around fourteen, in a semi-tempered chromatic arrangement).
• Three metal strings, with the first course doubled; played with a characteristic three-finger technique of the right hand.
• Resonator about 80 cm high, around 16 cm wide.

Sound and context: Soft, overtone-rich lute sound. In neighbouring Yarsanism (Ahl-e Haqq) the Tembûr counts as a sacred object: among the Êzîdî, by contrast, it is a profane accompaniment instrument for Stranbêj songs and epic singing, especially prominent in the Armenian–Êzîdî diaspora. The Saz/Bağlama is the closely related Kurdish–Turkish variant of the same construction family (Wikipedia organology; Açıkyıldız 2010).

3.2 Erbane / Daf (folk frame drum)

The same frame drum as the sacred Def (Section 2.1) appears in folk music under the name Erbane (or, secularly, Daf). Construction and sound are identical, wooden hoop, natural hide, often with metal rings –, but the status is different: here it is a profane dance and accompaniment instrument that gives the pulse for Govend round dances and festival songs. That the same object can be sacred or secular depending on player, place and occasion is the clearest illustration of the Êzîdî separation of sacred and profane sphere (cf. Section 4).

3.3 Zirne (shawm) and Dahol (drum): the festival duo

The loud open-air pair Zirne + Dahol is the acoustic epitome of the Êzîdî wedding and festival.

Zirne (Kurmancî zirne; Turkish zurna), a double-reed shawm (aerophone, “forerunner of the oboe”):

• A conically widening body turned from a single piece of wood with an attached bell.
• One thumb hole and up to eight finger holes.
• A flattened, double reed as the tone generator; the player uses circular breathing to play the melody through without an audible pause.
• Sound: extremely loud, penetrating, bright: built for the open courtyard and the large crowd.

Dahol (Kurmancî dahol; Turkish davul), a large double-headed cylinder drum (membranophone):

• Wooden cylinder body, headed with animal hide on both sides, the heads braced against each other with rope or leather lacing.
• Struck on both sides: deep bass on the large head with a padded beater, sharp counter-stroke on the small side with a thin switch.

Context: Zirne and Dahol are nearly inseparable and form the classic dance ensemble for Dawet (wedding), Sersal/Çarşemiya Sor and all the great festivals. They lead the line dance Govend, which is directed by the Serçopî (dance leader with a cloth) (Açıkyıldız 2010).

3.4 Kemança (spike fiddle)

The Kemança (also Kemençe) is a spike fiddle (bowed chordophone):

• Small, round or pear-shaped body, often with a hide or wooden soundboard, resting on a spike that is set upright on the knee.
• Few strings (usually three or four), bowed.

Context: In Êzîdî folk music it is especially widespread in the Armenian–Êzîdî diaspora, where it accompanies lament and narrative singing (Dengbêj tradition), a profane melody instrument of slender, plaintive tone.

3.5 Bilûr (shepherd’s flute)

The Bilûr is the shepherd’s flute: the everyday, profane sister of the sacred Şibab:

• An end-blown longitudinal flute of reed, wood or (in modern times) metal, slimmer and shorter than the Şibab, with finger holes along the tube.
• Played without a mouthpiece, on the same end-blown principle as Ney and Şibab.

Context: The instrument of the shepherd in the pasture, easy to carry, easy to make, played in solitude. Precisely this everyday, pastoral location separates it sharply from the identically shaped but consecrated Şibab of the Qewwal: same type of flute, opposite status (cf. Section 4).

4. Sacred vs. profane: the logic behind it

The most striking feature of Êzîdî organology is not which instruments are used, they are predominantly the same as among the neighbouring peoples, but the sharp ritual sorting:

Especially telling are the two pairs of identically shaped instruments separated by their status:

• Def (sacred) ↔ Erbane/Daf (profane): the same frame drum, consecrated or secular depending on player and occasion.
• Şibab (sacred) ↔ Bilûr (profane): the same type of flute, one accompanies the revelation, the other the flock.

This separation mirrors the Êzîdî order on the large scale: just as only the clergy may take on certain sacred tasks and just as the Sanjak is carried only by Qewwal (see Sanjak and Tawûsgêran), so too the sacred sound may come only from appointed hands. The instrument alone is not sacred, it becomes sacred through player, place and occasion. More on the occasions and their course in the articles Festivals and Festival Calendar and Traditions.

5. Distinction from “Êzîdî Music”

This article describes the instruments as objects. Who plays them (Qewwal, Stranbêj, Dengbêj), which genres (Stran, Lawik, Heyranok, Zêmar) and which artists (from Karapetê Xaço to the diaspora generation) exist and how the music is organised by occasion is treated in detail in the article Êzîdî Music. The sacred Qewl tradition as a textual genre and its oral transmission is explained under Qewl, the oral sacred tradition.

Sources

Trust code: A = academic peer-reviewed / standard reference; B = institutional or recognised community; C = encyclopaedia/organology overview without formal peer review (used only for general construction details).

Status: 2026-06-15 · Êzîdî authenticity verified · Consistent spelling: Êzîdî/Êzîden, Tawûsî Melek (never “devil”), Lalîş, Sanjak, Qewwal, Xwedê (never Allah). Instrument names in Kurmancî-Latin. Clearly delimited from musik.