COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS

ARİF MEHMED AĞA

Arif Mehmed Aga was born in or around 1784. He was an important composer and performer on the tanbur during the reigns of Selim III and Mahmud II. He was brought up in the imperial palace, became a good tanbur player, and his compositions became famous, though only a few of them have survived to the present day. He invented two makams: Dilküsa and Sevkaver. Arif Mehmed Aga died in 1843.