Tanburi Cemil Bey was an influential Turkish musician born in 1873 in Istanbul who greatly contributed to the taksim genre of Ottoman classical music. He was a virtuoso of multiple string instruments including the tanbur, kemençe, and lavta. He reformed the playing technique of the tanbur and was also the inventor of the bowed tanbur. Though a sensitive person, he suffered from alcoholism later in life. Many of his compositions were preserved in his recordings.