Mehter Davul
The mehter davul is the great two-headed drum of the mehter, the Ottoman military band, struck with a heavy beater to drive the slow, thundering rhythm of the janissary march, the pulse of an army on the move. The davul, a large double-skin cylinder slung at the waist or on a strap, is played with a curved stick and a thin switch, producing the deep boom and sharp crack that set the soldiers' gait; together with the shrill zurna, the kettle-drums, and the cymbals it made the band that European observers from the 16th century described as terrifying in battle and overwhelming in its din. The me