Iraqi daf maker keeps traditional craft alive despite challenges

In his workshop in Mosul, Iraqi craftsman Haqqi al-Sanjari practised the traditional craft of making the daf, a hand-held drum with ancient roots that has long featured in religious, cultural and social gatherings.

The daf is a traditional hand-held drum which looks like a super-sized tambourine with metal chains that add a shimmering sound.

Behind that sound were hours of work for al-Sanjari: cutting, shaping and hammering a wooden frame, fitting metal rings around it, and stretching animal skin across the surface before tapping the finished drum to test its sound.

The craft ran in his family, as his father and grandfather had also made dafs. The trade brought him a modest income, he said, not high profits, but enough to live on. 

Al-Sanjari said the best daf frames were made from oak and walnut wood, but supplies had become scarce and costly, and only a limited number of trunks reached daf makers each year. 

As for the skin, he explained that wolf and gazelle skin produced the finest sound but were too rare and expensive for most makers, who relied instead on sheep or goat skin. 

Al-Sanjari described an account passed down by elders in the trade: a daf made from wolf skin would silence any daf made of sheep or goat skin, just as sheep tend to fear wolves.

He said that daf making has become less common in Iraq, with few people still practising it in each province. 

The daf still carries its role in religious tradition, with footage showing men playing it during a religious eulogy praising the Prophet Mohammed, where the daf is traditionally used.

Camera: Khalid al-Mousily, Editing: Haider Kadhim Nour, Production and Writing: Haider Kadhim Nour and Zainab Elhaj/Reuters