Même si la forme du rubāb afghan évoque celle d’une vièle, il s’agit bien d’un luth à cordes pincées. L’histoire de l’instrument nous est encore inconnue, on sait juste qu’elle est rattachée aux populations pashtounes du sud de l’Afghanistan historique qui, mobiles, se déplaçaient entre les régions de Kaboul, de Peshawar et de Delhi. Selon les travaux d’Adrian McNeil, l’instrument serait arrivé au Nord de l’Inde entre les mains de Pashtouns du clan Bangashi. Le clan Bangashi était spécialisé dans le commerce des chevaux. Un grand nombre de familles de ce clan s’est sédentarisé dans la région du Rohilkhand, dans l’état de l’Uttar Pradesh, non loin de Delhi.
L'époque Gandhāra
(Photograph : Detail of the bas-relief MG 16999-Paris MNAAG, IVth century EC, Gandhāra, Pakistan. Musée Guimet collection).
Beaucoup de musiciens afghans pensent que l’origine du rubāb afghan remonte aux luths représentés sur des bas-reliefs Gandhāras du IVth (Photograph : Detail of the bas-relief MG 16999-Paris MNAAG,th siècle, Gandhāra, Pakistan. Collection Musée Guimet). En effet, les échancrures latérales font penser au rubāb afghan, mais une rapide analyse organologique montre que la table d’harmonie est en bois (indiquée par le fait que les cordes sont accrochées au chevalet et non à la base de l’instrument) et qu’il n’y a pas de cordes sympathiques (élément déterminant pour l’organologie du rubāb afghan).
The Mughal period
(Image: miniature depicting a prince playing a rubāb lute also called qobūz by the miniaturist Aqā Rezā in 1595, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
The absence of representations of the Afghan rubāb in Persian and Mughal miniatures raises questions. In fact, no Persian or Mughal miniature shows an Afghan rubāb, which suggests that the instrument, in the form we know it today, had still not been invented throughout this period.
A possible 19th century invention
(Photograph: rubāb/sarod, inventory number 02020 IS, Victoria and Albert museum, London)
The British Mountstuart Elphinstone speaks of a rubāb around 1808, but he makes no description of the instrument. Thus, it is not possible to know whether it is an Afghan rubāb. The description given by Captain N. Augustus Willard shortly before 1825 does not allow us either to certify that this is indeed the instrument. Indeed, he does not mention the presence of sympathetic strings, while he notes that the instrument is played by means of a thick plectrum.
Image: rubāb/sarod by François-Joseph Fétis in 1869
La première représentation graphique attestant pour la première fois l’existence d’un rubāb afghan est attribuée au compositeur et encyclopédiste belge François-Joseph Fétis en 1869 (Image : rubāb/sarod réalisé par François-Joseph Fétis en 1869). Elle aurait faite à partir de l’instrument présenté au pavillon des Indes lors de l’Exposition Universelle de 1855. Cet instrument se trouve au Victoria and Albert museum, in London. This is the oldest surviving Afghan rubāb (Photograph: rubāb/sarod, inventory number 02020 IS, Victoria and Albert museum, London). It is therefore possible to put forward the hypothesis that sympathetic strings, known in Afghanistan as sim-e tarab or sim-e bajgi, were introduced on the instrument between 1825 and 1855.
The invention of sympathetic cords
Photograph: representation of the location of the sympathetic string pegs in the structure of the Afghan rubāb.
Although the use of metal wire dates back to ancient times, its use on musical instruments is much more recent. We know that instruments were fitted with metal strings in the 14th century,th such as the nuzha or the mugni, deux cithares sur table présentées par Hasan Kāshāni dans son Kanz al-Tuhaf dar musiqi. Mughal miniatures tell us that it was not until the end of the 18th centuryth that the first sympathetic strings appeared on viols sarangi. The German theorist Michael Praetorius used it on viols in the early 17th century.th We can put forward the hypothesis that the principle of sympathetic strings moved from Europe to India during the 18th century.th This element supports the assumption that the Afghan rubāb was invented at the beginning of the 19thth century.
The possible precursor lute of the Afghan rubāb
Image: montage to illustrate the hypothesis of the evolution of the Bichitr rubāb into the Afghan rubāb
The Mughal miniature entitled Musician and dervish, made before 1660 by the artist Bichitr, shows a lute similar in appearance to the Afghan rubāb. The instrument is named after the miniaturist ‘Bichitr's rubāb’ (Image: montage to illustrate the hypothesis of the evolution of Bichitr's rubāb into the Afghan rubāb). The appearance of the instrument also evokes the morphology of the cikārā, a rubāb played with a bow or plectrum. The cikārā has a shape identical to that of the North Hindustan viol sarinda but its neck is placed on the other side of the body (Image: montage showing the superimposition of the contours of a cikārā on the body of a sarinda). It is highly probable that the Bichitr rubāb was transformed into an Afghan rubāb when a luthier had the idea of mounting sympathetic strings on it. This transformation requires no addition or subtraction of material, just a deformation of the middle and lower volumes.
Image: montage showing the superimposition of the contours of a cikārā on the body of a sarinda
Image: montage showing a morphological comparison between the cikārā and the Bichitr's rubāb
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