Tambura is a folk string instrument. The first tambura ever mentioned is the Assyrian tambura and it dates back to BC. The pictrure of the instrument with a long neck was found carved from rock dating from the third century. Name tambura comes from the Persian word t-n, which means the wire.

The oldest preserved written document about the existence of tambura comes from 1515 in Bosnia, Serbia, in the travels of N.Nicolaj - companion to the French consulate in Turkey. Later tambura spread to Slavonia, Kosovo and Metohija, Vojvodina and part of southern Hungary.