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Mirwas
Unpitched percussion instrument / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The mirwās or marwas (Arabic: مرواس), plural marāwīs (Arabic: مراويس) is a small double-sided, high-pitched hand drum originally from the Middle East. It is a popular instrument in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, used in sawt and fijiri music. It is also common in Kuwait and Yemen.
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Hadhrami migrants from Yemen took the instrument to Muslim Southeast Asia (especially Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei), where it is used in Zapin and Gambus musical genres. A similar drum of this area is the Gendang.
The Marwas drums used to accompany Gambus music in Lampung, Indonesia often consist of four sizes with two skins of a diameter between 12-20 centimetres.[1] The skins are commonly made from goatskin and formerly black monkey skin and are laced with leather or plastic to a jackfruit-wood cylindrical body of around 8 to 10 centimetres in height.[2]