Sintir

Gimbri (Arabic الكمبري ) guinbri other spellings, guembri, gmbri, gnibra, gombri, gunbri and gunibri, plural gnabir, gnaber, high qunbrī Arabic, is a 1-1.5 meters long box plucked lute with three strings in the Maghreb countries Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. It has a long round neck and a rectangular body made of one piece of wood, which is covered at the top with an untanned animal skin. The strings are usually made ​​from sheep intestines and are not attached to vertebrae, but with a leather strap around the neck.

The Gimbri is a black African instrument that could have its roots in Guinea and perhaps in the 13th or 14th century came to Morocco with the Gnawa. Is the first time in writing the Gimbri is at Ibn Battuta (1304-1377) as qanābir ( Pl ). The lute became a simple accompaniment of Moroccan folk music, in contrast to the mechanism introduced by the Arabs in the 7th century, Turkish Persian ṭunbūr of classical Arab music. It is related to the played by the Sahrawis in Mauritania and four-stringed tidinit and the three-stringed tahardent the Tuareg.

As Gimbri is coated with the skin, it is not only stringed instrument, but also often used as a drum. That means you can simultaneously play drums with her and also tones.

The three instruments, Gnawa occur with those at concerts and they use the ritual obsession Derdeba, in addition to the Gimbri the large cylindrical drum are TBAL and metal hand rattling qaraqib (sing. qarqaba ). The Gimbri identified in this therapeutic ritual with the demoniac and is used for invocation of the spirits. They may be played within the meeting place only at night. The same central importance of Gimbri to the Tunisian obsession ritual Stambali.