A large cylindrical drum used in ancient and medieval Islamic music, similar to a timpani or kettle drum.
From Spanish 'atabal', which came from Arabic 'al-ṭabāl' (the drum). The word traveled from the Islamic world into medieval Spanish and then into English through cultural contact.
The 'al-' at the beginning is the Arabic word for 'the'—so when this instrument arrived in Europe, people took the Arabic name with the definite article still attached and made it part of the word!
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