Which musical instrument did the Khan of Kokand, Khudayar Khan, play with great skill?

Which musical instrument did the Khan of Kokand, Khudayar Khan, play with great skill?

The collection of musical instruments of the peoples of Central Asia was compiled by August Fyodorovich Eichhorn (1844–1911), a conductor of a Turkestan military orchestra and an ethnographer of Central Asian music. This collection of 37 musical instruments dates back to the 1850s–1880s, with some items dating back to earlier periods.

 

At that time, the rubab, tar, and setor were among the musical instruments used by the elite of musicians who served the enlightened community of the city.

The setor in A. F. Eichhorn's collection belonged to the Khan of Kokand, Khudayar Khan; according to information, Khudayar Khan himself played it skillfully and presented it to the master musician Karimboy. This information is confirmed by existing facts regarding the musical instruments of Central Asian rulers and nobles.

 

A characteristic feature of the musical instruments of Central Asian rulers is that they were decorated with great taste and complex technique. The griffon of the setor is decorated with a very rare and complex ornament, the girih, which is decorated with very small geometric ornaments, complex polygonal patterns, and carvings from white bones and mastics.

 

The back of the dig is decorated with triangular ornaments made of white bone. Such decoration was characteristic only of the musical instruments of the rulers and nobility of Khiva, Kokand, and Bukhara.