Tamburica

Tamburica, also written as Tamboura, in Serbo-Croatian Тамбурица, meaning "little tamboura". It is a type of a lute that is popular mainly in Southern Europe and Central Europe, especially Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, and Hungary. Tamburica to a certain extent resembles guitar, but also mandolin and the Persian tanbur. Its strings are plucked and usually paired. The type of tamburica that we know of today was developed in Serbia and Croatia at the end of the 19th century. It is thought to have been introduced to Central Europe in the Byzantine ere — brought from Persia by the Turks. Its use was taken up by southern Slavic ethnic groups from Slavonia, which once extended beyond the modern borders of Croatia. Tambura music, along with folksong forms related to Bećarac, is also prevalent in neighboring Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.