Egyptian musical instruments

The ney ( ; ) is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in traditional Kurdish, Persian, Turkish, Jewish, Arab, and Egyptian music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played for over 4,500 years, dating back to ancient Egypt, making it one of the oldest musical instruments still in use.

Zills, zillia, zils, or sagat, also known as finger cymbals or fanglesnaps, are small metallic cymbals used in belly dancing and similar performances. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. In Western music, several pairs can be set in a frame to make a tambourine.

The simsimiyya (Arabic: سمسمية or سنسمية simsimyya/sinsimiyya; pl. simsimiyyāt/sinsimiyyāt, سمسميات) is a box or bowl lyre used in Egypt. Models exist with both circular soundboxes as well as rectangular. In the past, Egyptian models had 5 strings. The strings are held in place by pegs instead of tuning rings. Today, images of the instrument in Egypt may show 12 strings. It has been played since ancient times.

type of drum

The kissar (also spelled kissir), tanbour or gytarah barbaryeh is the traditional Nubian lyre, still in use in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. 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 two 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 u