ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Tof, also toph(), plural tuppim, is a historical, especially Old Testament, generic term for drums. The tof of the Bible meant a frame drum, which was played predominantly, but not only by women to accompany chants in joyous dances and ritual dances. Mythical role model for the frame drum played by women in the Orient is the Old Testament prophetess Mirjam with her companions. Iron Age terracotta figurines depicting drumming women demonstrate this cultural significance of the frame drum that emerged in Palestine during the time of ancient Israel.

Etymology
The Ugarite language is documented on cuneiform texts from the city-state of Ugarit from the 14th to the 12th century BC. The texts were often used as a corrective for the translation of Hebrew words of the Old Testament. They contain clearly identified names for musical instruments that are also found in the Bible: knr, vocalized Hebrew kinnor, "Leier"; msltm, Hebrew mesiltayim, "zimbel" and tp, Hebrew tof, as well as probably χlb for "flute". In Ugaritic script, the probably onomatopoetic consonant root tp means "drum", "drummer" and "drumming" and obviously refers to a rather bright drum sound with little resonance. The root tp is contained in many languages, where it stands for a drum, but not always for a frame drum.

Tp and tof may originate from the Sumerian word DUB, which falls under the broader term for “musical instrument”, BALAG. Sumerian DÚB-DÚB, “beat”, becomes in Akkadian a-da-ab and adapu. The Sumerian loanword occurs in the Middle Babylonian period (second half of the 2nd millennium BC) in an Akkadian lexicon context with the determinative (classifying addition) urudu.adapa, "copper"-adapa. This drum could not have been round at first, but at least for a certain time square and covered on one or both sides with skin. The fact that adapa may have been a percussion instrument at all gives the textual proximity to the word lilissu, which denotes the large Sumerian boiler drum.

In addition to the boiler drum lilissu used in rituals, the dub also seems to have consisted of "copper" (bronze) according to the determinative erû. The Sumerian DUB is also found modified in the Akkadian word dadpu and via the Persian dabdabe and the Arabic dabdāb in the old Georgian word for the cylinder drum dabdabi. Perhaps the name still survives in the North Indian rattle drum budbudika (equivalent to the damaru) and the small Northwest Indian hourglass drum dhadd.

In Aramaic, the frame drum was called tupa, in Ancient Egypt tbu. In the Arab world, the name daf (ad-duff, plural dufūf, dialect variants such as deff) is widespread and arrived with Arabic-Andalusian music as ad