Daf : Iran musical instrument

This is a frame drum used in popular and classical music by the Persians. It is made of hardwood and the membrane is made of goatskin. Daf is mainly used by the people of the Middle East, Turkey, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Iran and Azerbaijan. Some dafs are equipped with small cymbals and metal ringlets and usually it accompanies singers and players of violin, oud, saz and other Middle Eastern musical instruments.

source of picture: museumvictoria.com.au

Daf as a musical instrument dates back to Sassanid Iran who called it Dap. Daf therefore is the Arabic name that is given to dap. The existence of dap in the freeing of Behistun connotes that daf had existed before the rise of Islam daf as a musical material has been a major part of religious music in Iran long before Sufism. This is a clear evidence that daf played a major role in Mazdean Iran coming up as an important element during Sassanian times. There has also been an existence of a kind of square frame drum in the stonecutting of Taq-e Bostan. These squared frame drum has been played by the Ancient Middle East, Greece, and Rome and finally got to Medieval Europe through the Islamic culture.

Norouz (the first day of the Iranian New Year and the national festival of the Iranian people) and other festive occasions have been accompanied by dap in Sassanid periods (224 A.D. - 651 A.D.) daf was played in this period to supplement Iranian Classical music. Daps were used likely by the court to be played in the modes and melodies of traditional music. The traditional or classical music were established by the Barbod of great and was renamed to Khosravani after the mythical King Khosrow.  Recently it was revealed that these modes were used in reading aloud publicly the Mazdean Prayers. The modes were passed down from teachers or master to students are well known today as Radiff and Dastgah system. Most of the melodies were reported to have lost, but most of the melodies that remain date to Sassanid era. Dafs can be manipulated by the players to produce a complex and highly intense rhythms that can take anybody to the world of trance and reach an ecstatic and spiritually-high state. And that is why they are connected with the Iranian religion

The daf and other Middle Eastern musical instruments were introduced to Spain by the Moor and they accepted and promoted the daf and those other musical instrument such as guitar. In the 15^th century, the daf was only used in Sufi celebrations. It was reintroduced to the Europeans in the 17^th century.