Page "Tambourine" Paragraph 24

A daf is a large-sized tambourine used to accompany both popular and classical music in Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey ( where it is called tef ), Uzbekistan ( where it's called childirma ), India ( where it is known as the Dafli ) and Turkmenistan.

Daf typically indicates the beat and tempo of the music being played, thus acts like the conductor in the monophonic oriental music.

The Persian poet Rudaki, who widely used names of the musical instruments in his poems, mentions the daf and the tambourine ( taboorak ) in a Ruba ' i: