page_title: Santur
section_title: Iraqi santur
hierarchical_section_title: Santur / Iraqi santur
caption_attribution_description: English: Iraqi santur player Saad al-Ubaydi c.1977
context_page_description: The santur Persian: سنتور‎, is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian or Mesopotamian origins.
context_section_description: The Iraqi santur  (also santour, santoor ) (Arabic: سنطور‎) is a hammered dulcimer of Mesopotamian origin. It is a trapezoid box zither with a walnut body and 92 steel (or bronze) strings. The strings, tuned to the same pitch in groups of four, are struck with two wooden mallets called "midhrab". The tuning of these 23 sets of strings extends from the lower yakah (G) up to jawab jawab husayni (a). The bridges are called dama (chessmen in Iraqi Arabic) because they look like pawns. It is native to Iraq, syria, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Greece (the Aegean coasts) and Azerbaijan.
  It is the main instrument used in the classical Maqam al-iraqi tradition along with the Iraqi spike fiddle joza. ('Music of the Arabs' ISBN 0-931340-88-8).
  The instrument was brought to Europe by the Arabs through North Africa and Spain during the Middle Ages and also to China where it was referred to as the "foreign qin".
  The Iraqi santur has, since its inception, been fully chromatic allowing for full maqam modulations. It uses 12 bridges of steel strings on both sides. Three of these bridges are movable: B half flat qaraar, E half flat, and B half flat jawaab. The non-standard version of the Iraqi santur includes extra bridges so that there's no need to move those three bridges. However, playing it is a bit harder than playing the standard 12-bridge santur. For a video demonstration, see Wesam al-Azzawy's video links in the sections below.
caption: Chalghi santur player playing on a non-standard Iraqi santur
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