The History of Ney

En Eski Ney

Ney is the oldest wind instrument ever known. It is told that there was a double pipe whistle which was taken to China by Şan-Kiyen in 1249 BC. In Turkistan, a similar instrument which is called “Koş-Ney” is still in use. It is supposed to be the oldest Turkish instrument.
Ney is a very ancient instrument that has been played continuously since 3000 BC. Two of the oldest ones are displayed in the University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology.
The details of the oldest ney ever known are as follows:
Accession numbers: 1902-58,a
'Flutes (2) (Nays)'
Egyptian
Date?
Description: Reed with seven holes
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. William D. Frishmuth, 1902
Size: L. 23'
L. 2' 5 3/4'
Deaccessioned: Given to the University Museum 1/7/52
Ney bilinen en

Dünyanın en eski Neyi

Ney was firstly used in old Mesopotamia (the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers) by Sumerians. Its name comes from the Farsi words "nay" and "na" that mean “reed”.
On the left, you can see the photo of the oldest ney. It is not too different from its todays shape. As seen, it does not have a mouthpiece (called “Başpâre” in Turkish).
Some Egyptian historians state that ney was an instrument used in the religious ceremonies made for the god of the afterlife, Osiris. In Egypt, ney was named either “Mam” or “Sebi” according to the playing position. It is also told that there was another type of ney which was played by only women in ancient Egypt. In Tanakh, a kind of ney called “Hagub” is stated.

As known, Turks accepted Islam after the Battle of Talas (751 AD). However, ney gained its importance in Islam World after 13th century. Undoubtedly, Mevlânâ Celâleddin-i Rûmî had a great role in this.
In the second half of the tenth century, Farabi used the first Turkish musical notation as "Ebced Notası". It is supposed that Karahitays (East Karahan State) used an original musical notation called "Ayalgu" after 1124. This notation is quite different from the today’s one. We can learn from Hodja Gıyaseddin Nakkaş’s travelbook that ney was used by Karahitays too.

Ney tarihi
Asteklere ait Ney

Aztecs also used some instruments similar to ney in their ceremonies. The only answer of the question how ney came to Mexico is probably the migrations from Central Asia through Alaska. Some Sumerian (3500–2300 BC) relief sculptures about ney and ney players are displayed in Philadelphia Museum of Art. On the left, you can see the photo of the Aztec instrument similar to ney.
Sufi Ferittin-i Atar stated a story about ney in his book. The story can be summarized like this: One day, Hz. Mohammed told Hz. Ali a secret however Hz. Ali could not keep this secret and revealed it by shouting into a well. Allah created a long reed in this well, a shepherd found the reed and made a ney. Hz. Mohammed listened to this shepherd while he was playing his ney. The melody of the ney whispered the secret that Hz. Ali had revealed. When Hz. Mohammed asked about it, Hz. Ali confessed what he had done and apologized. As seen, this story is quite similar to the myth about King Midas (donkey's ears!).

Değişik başpâreler

Historical miniatures also give us some information about ney; for instance, there are 13533 miniatures in the books of Topkapi Palace Library. There are some miniatures about ney and other instruments like “çeng”, “def” (tambourine), “boru” (bugle) in Dilsuznâme (Rose and Nightingale) that is the oldest book about Ottoman musical instruments.
Even in the Codex Vindobonensis in Vienna Austrian National Library, there is a lady gravure playing ney.

Ney is a popular instrument that is still used in Turkey, India and many Arab countries. Not only is it used in classical or religious music but also it is very common in other temporal music genres like pop and folk music.