Zang (Persian: زنگ) means bell in Persian, for both large bells and small. The term has historically been applied to a number of ringing metal musical instruments, including large bells with clappers worn by elephants, smaller 3-9 inch bells worn on camels, horses, donkeys and cattle, 2-3 inch sheep bells, and tiny bells tied to the legs of hawks. It also applies to clusters of small bells worn by musicians and dancers, sewn onto cloth bracelets and anklets, or laced on a long string to be wrapped around the waist or hung as a necklace.
Additionally, the name in many forms has been applied to cymbals, especially small finger cymbals (Persian: sanj angshati سنج انگشتی) used by dancers, known worldwide today as zills, but also to some larger cymbals including the Iranian sanj or Iraqi zanj.
That cymbals and bells have been differentiated in Persian can be seen in the Shahnameh which refers to both instruments together: His elephant-attendants' crowns of gold, Their golden girdles and their golden torques, Their golden Sanj (cymbals) and their golden Zang (bells)... --Ferdowsky, Shahnameh, text number 7.
Origin of bells, Near East and Central Asia Near East Cast metal bells may have first been made in China as early as 3000 B.C.,von Falkenhausen, L. (1994). Suspended Music: Chime-Bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China. University of California Press, p. 132. ISBN 978-0-520-91107-9 as the angular harp originated in the Near East. Connections between the Near East and China by the 5th century B.C. is considered a fact now, given the discovery of horizontal angular harps in China.
In Mesopotamia, the first bells were made of clay, later ones of bronze or other metals and were decorated with symbolic signs. Bells in the 1st millennium B.C. usually had a meaning to ward off evil, which is why they were worn by priests on a cord around their necks.Wilhelm Stauder: The Music of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. In: Bertold Coiler (ed.): Handbook of Oriental Studies. 1st Dept. Near and Middle East. Supplementary Volume IV. Oriental Music. EJ Brill, Leiden/Cologne 1970, pp. 182, 197, 208
Babylonian terracotta figures from the 2nd millennium B.C. have been found holding small pairs of cymbals in their hands, the originals of which were probably made of bronze. Such bronze basins from about 1200 B.C. were found in Syria and from the mid-ninth century B.C. were found in Egypt. From the 17th Egyptian dynasty (16th century B.C.) we know of professional musicians employed by mural paintings, such as the drummer Emhab, who has been handed down by name. Terracotta figurines with basins from Ancient Egypt are dated to the Greek period. Many of the bronze, silver and gold bells used in Egypt and the Middle East also date from this period.
The oldest bronze bells unearthed in Palestine come from Tel Megiddo dated to the 9th/8th century B.C. The bells with clapper are made of bronze, 2.5 to 6.5 centimeters high, roughly hemispherical in shape and have an eyelet for hanging. The numerous finds of bells in the Palestine area in the Greco-Roman period are somewhat smaller. Ever since they were mentioned in the Old Testament (in connection with pomegranates), the bells have had a magical protective function.
Central Asia
Bronze bells, which were probably hung on horses, do not appear until the 12th century BC at the earliest in an area from the north of the Iranian highlands to the southern Caucasus. They probably belonged to nomad riders who traveled with pack horses. The horses of Assyrian rulers were from the 9th century BC. hung with several bells. By the 5th century B.C. individual bells hung on horses and camels throughout the Orient to the Balkans.Max Wegner, "History of Music in Pictures, Greece. (Volume 2: Music of Antiquity, Delivery 4) German Music Publishers, Leipzig 1963, p. 60
It was common for the Turkic peoples and Mongolians to use bells made of two differently shaped half-shells on the harness, so that the enclosed balls produced two tones.Percival Price: Bell (i). In: The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, Vol. 1, 2014, p. 299 The sound of the bells of slowly walking camels gave a specific drum rhythm of classical Persian music the descriptive name zang-e schotor ("camel bells [rhythm]") in Persian.Mohammad Reza Azadehfar: Rhythmic Structure in Iranian Music (Vol. 1). (PhD thesis) The University of Sheffield, 2004, pp. 147f
The places where bells were used in southern Central Asia the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C., includes the urban settlement of Bactra (Balch). In addition to many pottery items, bells from the 1st millennium B.C. were also found in the cemeteries. Bronze bells are known from the Sasanian Empire (224-651). From two cemeteries laid out between the 7th and 9th centuries A.D. in the Siberian region of Khabarov (Nadezhdinskoje and Korsakova) come bronze bells with a clapper, which were probably attached to a belt. Bells and other metal attachments on the belt have been part of the clothing of the nomads in the Asian steppes since the 7th century. To this day they have been preserved as part of the shaman's costume. Bells and shackles sewn onto clothing or shoes to ward off evil spirits or the evil eye have been unearthed in many areas of Siberia and Central Asia. Spherical bells with a slit from Sogdian and Bactrian graves of the 7th/8th centuries also had this function.
Bronze bells with and without iron clapper hung on the bridles of horses and donkeys in the Assyrian Empire. According to tradition, the Prophet Mohammed was not happy about the bells (Arabic jaras) hanging from the necks of pack animals in Arabia in pre-Islamic times. It is said that angels avoid caravans that produce such noises. Burial finds in Central Asia from the period from the 2nd century B.C. until the 8th/10th Century A.D. also show that the harness was hung with multiple bells of different sizes. In the epic Shahnameh by the Persian poet Firdausi (940/941-1020) it is mentioned that elephants were hung with large golden bells and little bells in processions.
Numerous depictions of gods in wall paintings from the Sogdian city of Old Panjakent (near Panjakent, Tajikistan, 5th century) are hung with bells and cymbals on cords, which is why these tinkling metals probably had a religious significance in addition to their decorative function. One such wall painting from the palace of Old Panjakent depicts a goddess on a throne, holding in her right hand a ladder-like object with numerous bells hanging from its crossbars, which was apparently used to produce sounds. The object, probably brought as a gift from the goddess, shows parallels to two shake idiophones that are still used in the region today. One is called by Uzbeks, Tajiks and Uyghurs safail, (sapai), and consists of two wooden sticks to which metal rings are attached. A rattling noise is produced when shaken. Today, the safail is used as an accompaniment in dance music, similar to the qairāq (two river pebbles hit against each other) and qoschuq (“wooden spoon ”). Originally it was used by shamans and later by qalandar (wandering dervishes) in ritual music.
The other is the zang used in Tajik dance music: bells attached to a leather strap worn by dancers on their wrists or legs. Sources from the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907) describe the performances of "Turkish" dancers, i.e. dancers who immigrated from western regions, who wore bells and little bells for rhythmic accompaniment.
Bells as weapons of war In ancient Persia, bells were something hung on an animal or worn by a person. They were sounded in war as a weapon of terror, and worn by animals, signaling the large size of the approaching army. Animal bells could also be sounded by the men in the armies to add to the din. Cymbals too merged functions of war and music, as men clashed them.
A manuscript of the Shahnameh made in Tabriz around 1370 depicts a turbulent battle scene in which the weapons of the Persian troops fighting the Mongols included noise-making devices intended to instill fear in the enemy. For this purpose, a hydraulic organ and a mobile frame with large bells called ghulghul al-siyāh ("noisy bell") were transported.
Noise as a weapon of war is much older and already known from antiquity: The Parthians in the Iranian highlands and southern Central Asia gave battle signals with trumpets and drums and frightened their opponents with large, fur-covered hollow bodies, which, in addition to their loud thunderclap, made a shrill noise because of the rattles and bells attached to it, as Plutarch describes the battle of Carrhae in 53 B.C. According to ancient Indian sources and Greek mythology, the use of trumpets and "battle drums" with metal bells in them ultimately goes back to an Indian tradition.
Word spread
Zang bell and sanj cymbal are linguistically related.
Zang Persian zang means "bell" and "cymbal"; zangūla stands for the jingles on the frame drum, corresponding to dayereh-e zangi (dāyera zangī or dayere zangi), a dayereh with jingles. On Persian miniatures from the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 18th century (Timurids to Safavids) dayereh with five metal plates are most often depicted. In Afghanistan, in addition to zang for "cymbal", the word tal, which is widespread in India and derived from Sanskrit tala, is also used ("palm", "beat", "meter"), derived from the rhythmic structure of Indian music. In Afghanistan, the cymbal zang is distinguished from the Jew's harp tschang(čang). Zang occurs modified from Medieval Armenian zangak, "bell", zangakik (zangulak), "little bell" and zangakalezou, "bell clapper", as well as a Georgian loanword (zangalawi, zangalaki), "little bell". Zang-e sarangoshti (saringoshti) are the zill finger cymbals played during dances in Iran, which, according to the representations on Persian miniatures, belong to the old oriental dance tradition. In northern Afghanistan, the player of the long-necked lute dambura produces an accompanying rhythm with the zang-i kaftar bells worn on the wrist. In Uzbekistan, zang stands for a chain of small copper or brass bells that dancing girls wear on their wrists or ankles.
Sanj The word ṣanğ (xsanj, sanj, plural ṣunūğ) for "cymbal" occurring in medieval Arabic literature probably comes from the Persian čang (tschang), at the same time ṣanğ was a less common term than ğank for the Arabic harp. The historical angular harp tschang (chang) was widespread in the Near and Middle East. In addition, tschang (chang) is a dulcimer resembling the Persian santur, which is occasionally used by Uzbeks and Tajiks in classical Shashmaqam. A Central Asian Turkic source from the 11th century inscribed çenğ finger cymbals, which are now called zill in Turkish. The word has survived in Turkish as çeng-i harbî for a musical genre played by mehterhâne (military bands) and as çengi (belly dancer). In Uzbek, cymbals and bells are called zang (tschang, chang) and in Tatar Чаң (tschang), but among the Uzbeks in Afghanistan they are called tüsak. The Arabic-Persian sanj or jhanj is one of the many names for Indian cymbals, along with manjira, tal or elathalam. The kettle drum pairs naqqāra, long trumpets nafīr and sanj, along with other loud-sounding musical instruments, formed the Naubat Palace Orchestra in the Mughal Empire.
Everyday use In Iraq, zanj is usually understood as paired cymbals made of brass or bronze, which come in different sizes. The cords for holding on are attached to a hole in the center of the hump. Iraqi paired cymbals were used in military music, in churches and for all kinds of other processions. In addition to the cylinder drum dammām, they provide the musical accompaniment for Shiite passion plays. Less commonly, small finger cymbals with a diameter of four to five centimeters are called zanj.