Kanun String Instrument

The kanun (also spelled qanun) is the queen of Middle Eastern art music — a trapezoidal plucked zither with 78 strings, a 3.5-octave range, and a mandal system that lets the player shift intervals mid-piece without retuning. For over 1,000 years it has anchored Turkish classical fasıl, Arabic maqam ensembles, and Armenian sacred music. Every professional kanun in our catalog is hand-built in Türkiye by one of two master workshops — Mustafa Sağlam in Ankara (the MK / MKA / MKE series) and Miras in Istanbul (the MSK series and signature electric-acoustic models) — the two most recognized kanun makers working today. Sala Muzik's own workshop in Istanbul/Üsküdar inspects, sets up, and ships every instrument worldwide.

Our two master kanun workshops

Quick picks by tradition

Turkish vs Arabic vs Armenian — which kanun do you need?

The three regional kanun traditions share the same instrument family but differ in tuning, mandal layout, and the musical systems they support. Choosing the wrong tradition for your repertoire creates frustration — even with daily practice you'll fight against the instrument.

Detailed breakdown: Kanun (Qanun): Complete Guide — History, Mandal System, and Buying.

The mandal system — what makes the kanun unique

The kanun's defining innovation is its mandal (interval lever) system. Each course of strings has a row of small levers near the nut. Flipping a mandal shifts that course up or down by a quarter-tone, half-tone, or smaller koma interval — instantly, without retuning. This lets a kanun player follow modulations (geçki) through different makams/maqams in a single piece without stopping.

Most factory kanuns ship with 3-4 mandals per course (enough for basic playing). Professional Turkish kanuns by master makers carry 24-26 mandals per course — the precision needed for true koma-level pitch adjustment in advanced makam transitions (Hicaz Hümayun, Saba, certain Karcığar variants). The mandal count is the single most important indicator of an instrument's professional capability.

What makes a quality kanun

• Maker — Mustafa Sağlam (Ankara) and Miras (Istanbul) are the two workshops we trust for professional-grade kanuns. Factory kanuns from anonymous makers can have tuning instability and mandal failure within 1-2 years.
• Soundboard wood — spruce is the standard. Look for tight, even grain.
• Body wood — walnut for warmth, plane wood (chinar) for clarity, ebony for premium models. Note that wood choice is largely an aesthetic and tonal-color decision, not a quality hierarchy — the MK-404 and MK-123, both made by Sağlam at the same price, differ only in body wood (walnut+spruce vs chinar).
• Mandal precision — each lever should engage with a clean click and hold position under string tension. Sloppy mandals are the most common failure mode on cheaper instruments.
• String quality — PVF nylon is now standard. Earlier instruments used gut strings (most have been replaced). Premium models use individually weighted string sets matched to scale and tension targets.
• Tuning pegs — hand-finished hardwood (rose, boxwood, ebony) on professional instruments; machine-tooled mass-produced on cheaper ones.

A short history

The kanun's name derives from the Greek word kanon ("rule" or "model"), reflecting its role as a reference instrument in Middle Eastern music theory. It appears in Arab sources from the 10th century onward, was canonized in Ottoman classical music by the 18th century, and reached its modern mandal-equipped form in 19th-century Istanbul through the work of Ömer Efendi (court musician under Sultan Mahmud II, 1818-1839). The kanun is mentioned in The Stories of One Thousand and One Nights — a measure of how deeply it has anchored the musical imagination of the Middle East.

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