The choghur (; ka, ჩონგური) is a plucked string musical instrument common in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. It has 4 nylon strings. The choghur dates back to the 12th to 16th centuries, the period between the gopuz and the

Bağlama The bağlama or saz is a family of plucked string instruments and long-necked lutes used in Europe, Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, Khazar, Central Asia including Germany, France, Belgium, TRNC, Netherlands, Albania, Greece,Bosnia, Serbia, Croat ...

. In the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

, Iran and

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, and in

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

traditions, darvishes and ashugs used an instrument called the "chaghyr" /"chagur"/ "chugur" / "choghur" / "chungur". Presumably, the name "choghur" means "the musical instrument used to appeal to God and truth". In Azerbaijani the word "chaghir" means "to call", "to appeal". It may be assumed that the name of the instrument originates from the expression "chal-chaghyr" (festivity or celebration), which was later changed to "choghur". Various historical sources indicate that the choghur was used to create a high battle spirit among the soldiers of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

state's army. In the " Jahanarai Shah Ismayil Safavi"

annals Annals (, from , "year") are a concise history, historical record in which events are arranged chronology, chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction betw ...

, describing the situation at the beginning of the 16th century, several lines are devoted to such an occasion: "At the head of the victoriously striding army, chukurs played and Turks-Varsakgs sang in order to raise the battle spirit of the warriors." In his work "Turkmen Times in the South", Ali Reza Yalchin tells about the nine strings, 15

frets A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the Neck (music), neck or Fingerboard, fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the Neck ( ...

and perfect timbre of the choghur.16 It is possible to conclude from historical facts that in the 12th-13th centuries, the choghur replaced the ozan gopuz, and in the 15th-16th centuries, the choghur was replaced by the saz. But some versions of the choghur that were spread throughout the Caucasus and among the Iraqi Turkmens have survived until the present. The 19th-century choghur stored in the Azerbaijan

History Museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

has three pairs of strings and 22 frets on its

neck The neck is the part of the body in many vertebrates that connects the head to the torso. It supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that transmit sensory and motor information between the brain and the rest of the body. Addition ...

. The body of this instrument is made of mulberry wood. The top of the body has a wooden covering that is four mm thick. The neck and head of the instrument are made of nut wood, the pegs of pear wood. The total length of the instrument is 880 mm. The body is 400 mm long, 225 mm wide and 140 mm tall. Two

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a reso ...

apertures are drilled on each side of the body, and several apertures are made on top of the

sounding board A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platf ...

. Its scale goes from the "do" of the small

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

to the "sol" of the second octave.

Georgian Chonguri

The Chonguri (ჩონგური) is an instrument from Georgia related to the

panduri The panduri ( ka, ფანდური) is a Music of Georgia (country)#Folk music, traditional Georgian three-string plucked string instrument, plucked instrument common in all regions of Eastern Georgia (country), Eastern Georgia: such as Psha ...

, but larger and with a peg halfway down the neck. It has nylon (traditionally gut) strings.

Chungur

The Chungur (Чугур) or Chugur is an instrument played in the Caucasus region, especially

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...

, and related to the Choghur (from Azerbaijan, etc.) and Chonguri (from

). It has either four single strings or four doubled courses, or seven strings (doubled courses with the lowest course single). It can have a straight peghead (like a saz) or a

pegbox A variety of methods are used to tune different stringed instruments. Most change the pitch produced when the string is played by adjusting the tension of the strings. A tuning peg in a pegbox is perhaps the most common system. A peg has ...

with pegs from the side which bends back like a

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

scroll. The soundholes are usually several small holes in the soundboard in a geometrical pattern. Traditional ones have tied frets around the neck, and more modern ones have a raised

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

with metal inlaid frets. The small round body (unlike the spade-shaped chonguri) can be carved from a solid block of wood or made from separate ribs in a round shape like a small

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

or domra.

References

{{Musical instruments of Georgia (country) Musical instruments of Georgia (country) Azerbaijani musical instruments Sufi music