The kissar (also spelled kissir), Tanbour or Gytarah barbaryeh, the ancient Nubian lyre, still in use in Egypt, Sudan and Abyssinia. It consists of a body having instead of the traditional tortoise-shell back, a shallow, round bowl of wood, covered with a soundboard of sheepskin, in which are three small round sound-holes. The arms, set through the soundboard at points distant about the third of the diameter from the circumference, have the familiar fan shape. Five gut strings, knotted round the bar and raised from the soundboard by means of a bridge tailpiece similar to that in use on the modern guitar, are plucked by means of a plectrum by the right hand for the melody, while the left hand sometimes twangs some of the strings as a soft drone accompaniment.[1]

• 
  Egypt, 1859. The Kissar Player,
  painting by Frederick Goodall
• 
  Man playing kissar in Egypt

Kissar

A 19th century kissar in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
String instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	123.5 (Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum)
Developed	Sumer, Egypt, (Bronze Age)
Related instruments
lyre Cithara harp gue

See also

• Krar
• Tanbura

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kissar". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 837.