Music instruments: middle eastern percussion

The name of this percussion instrument - the derbukka - comes from the arab root verb "derb" which means "to beat". Hence the persian name of the instrument "zarb" as the z is pronounced somewhere between the z and the d. The player of a darabukka is called derebki.
The goblet shaped body use to be made of clay, sometimes wood and nowadays mostly of aluminium. As for the membrane it used to be fish skin or goat skin. Now fibre skin is replacing the traditional natural membranes. Giving it a crispier sound but it lost also on warmth. An advantage of using fibre skin is that temperature and humidity don't affect the sound anymore. Fibre skin added to the stability of the notes. And indeed the derboukka-players follows the melody pattern with a variety of notes of itself. The bass sound is called "dum" and the sharp sound "tek". Fingers are used as well as slaps and rolls. The upper part of the hand produces the bass sound and turkish musicians use even left hand finger knips to get the high sound. IN Europe the Ottomans introduced the tarambuka which became a common instrument in Bulgaria.

Zarb or dumbek

The persian version of the derbukka is a bit different shaped. More rectangular than round. Widely used in classical persian music as the main rhythm instrument. It's also called a dumbek but the shape is slightly different. It has a larger membrane.

Kalouze

A less known version of the darabucca is the khalouze, here pictured in the hands of a female musician. It's slightly different from shape and inside it has two strings attached just under the membrane so the sound a light buzz. This kind of drum is/was widely used by the chickates or North-african dancers/musicians.
Listen to some derbukka music and rhythms