ABSTRACT
Membranophones TOF (Heb. tō¼/#t; pl. tūppîm/!ypt; Sumer. dup, tup, adapa, Assyr. tuppu, Akkad. dadpu, tampaÓa, Phoenician mtpp, ancient Egyptian dbdb, tbu, Arab. duff, an onomatopoeic term imitating the beat on a muted resonating object), a frame drum (tambourine) of the ancient Semitic peoples. Presumably it had a metal or wooden frame covered on one or both sides with skin1 (usually of rams’ heads, as stated by the Talmud* in m. Qinnim III:6, but sometimes of wild goats). The Jewish tof, unlike the square shaped Arabic duff, was round,
like its Assyrian prototypes, though at times it could be square as well. Both kinds are presented among archaeological discoveries of the first millennium BCE (Figures 4.1, 4.2). There is no precise evidence about whether there were metal plates or rings attached to the frame. The tof was presumably played with the fingers or the wrists. However, neither the Bible nor the Talmud contain any information about that.
