kanoonn.

1817 T. Moore Lalla Rookh 184 Singing over Some ditty to her soft Kanoon.

1864 C. Engel Music Most Anc. Nations 45 Among the different species of dulcimers at present in use in the East the kanoon must be noticed.

1874 C. Engel Descr. Catal. Mus. Instruments S. Kensington Mus. (ed. 2) 208 The kanoon, or qânon, an instrument especially appertaining to the Arabs and Persians, is, like the santir, a kind of dulcimer evidently of high antiquity in the East.

1891 H. Caine Scapegoat I. vii. 142 He began to play on his kánoon.

1931 C. S. Hurgronje Mekka in Latter Part of 19th Cent. 44 Much worse is their habitual accompaniment of song with musical instruments: especially the qabûs, a four-stringed instrument which much resembles the kemènjeh, only that its strings are of gut instead of horsehair, and also the well known qânûn (guitar).

1957 H. G. Farmer in E. Wellesz Anc. & Oriental Mus. xi. 444 The psaltery was attributed to Al-Fārābi,..but the instrument is not mentioned by him under its millennium-old name of qānūn... As the qānūn it was known in Muslim Spain in the eleventh century, and in the fourteenth century it was mounted with sixty-four strings, tuned tricordally, in Persia.

1976 D. Munrow Instruments Middle Ages & Renaissance 21/4 Little metal flaps fitted on the modern Arab qānūn..enable the players to alter the pitch of a course of strings with an adroit flick of the fingers.

1976 D. Munrow Instruments Middle Ages & Renaissance 23/2 The Arabic qānūn today is a large psaltery played with great virtuosity in Middle Eastern orchestras, and is a direct descendant of the forerunner of the European psaltery.