imzad

The tradition & historical record

The imzad (Arabic: إمزاد; alternately amzad) is a type of bowed "single-string fiddle" used by the Tuareg people in Africa. Its body is made out of a gourd which is covered by animal skin, creating a soundboard. The strings are made from horse hair and are connected near the neck, and runs over a two-part bridge. The bridge is made of two pieced of wood, joined into a cross. The round bow is also equipped with horse hair. Traditionally, the instrument was played to accompany men's songs. The imzad is only played by the women for example to accompany songs, often during an evening ceremony called takket. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Imzad”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

imzad is type of fiddle, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 10 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²