New Book Traces Guitar’s Origins Back to Iran

Date: 30 July 2025 - 21:38

News ID: ۱۴۲۰۲۵

TEHRAN -- In a provocative new work, Guitar, Originally an Iranian Instrument, the musician and scholar Pedram Amini Abyaneh challenges the long-held Western-centric narrative of the guitar’s origins.
With a scholarly rigor reminiscent of a historian uncovering a lost chapter, Amini situates the guitar not in medieval Europe or the Spanish Renaissance, but rather deep within the cradle of ancient Iranian civilization.
The book is less a casual treatise and more an excavation — a meticulous, document-supported endeavor to reclaim a cultural lineage often overshadowed by Eurocentric accounts.
Contrary to popular belief, Amini argues, the guitar’s ancestry traces back to the East, with the oud, a pear-shaped stringed instrument historically associated with Persian and Arabic music, emerging as a direct progenitor.
What makes Guitar, Originally an Iranian Instrument especially compelling is its multidisciplinary approach. The narrative moves fluidly through musicology, history, and cultural studies, tracing the guitar’s evolution not as a single linear progression but as a rich, tangled tapestry of cross-cultural exchanges.
Amini analyzes the structural elements of the six-string guitar, juxtaposing it with the oud’s tuning and range, thereby uncovering striking parallels that invite a reconsideration of the guitar’s heritage.
This reexamination resonates in a contemporary moment keenly aware of the dynamics of cultural appropriation and the politics of identity. By foregrounding Iran’s contribution to the guitar’s development, Amini amplifies the voices and histories often marginalized in global music histories.
The book’s chapters unfold with a rhythmic precision: from the geographical and historical context of ancient Iran as a musical hub, to detailed comparative studies of stringed instruments across Eurasia, to reflections on the guitar’s place in modern popular culture. Amini’s prose is precise, often lyrical, and suffused with an evident reverence for the instrument’s rich past.