According to Ibn Khaldun's the Muqqadima, "A sovereign's privileged symbol is his special paraphernalia. There is flag raising, beating of the drums and the blowing of trumpets and horns." In a broad sense, nawba is the term used to designate a military musical band, but their early instruments were only drums. In other words, "beating drums" can replace nawba.The research in medieval Islamic studies has tended to emphasize not nawba but khutba (the address from the minbar in the mosque) and sikka (coinage). This brief article aims at analyzing chronologically the formation and the development of nawba from the Buwayhid to the Saljuqid period.According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition), nawba has the purpose to announce the prayer time by beating a drum in the gateways of governor's palaces and residences. Under the 'Abbasid dynasty, only the caliph had this privilege. In 945 (or 946), when the Buwayhid's sovereign Ahmad (later his title is Mu'izz al-Dawla, d. 967) entered Baghdad, the capital of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, he demanded that drums be beaten in the palaces. As a result, the privilege of nawba was granted to Mu'izz al-Dawla, in the form of the three-fold nawba, excepting madina al-salam (Baghdad). The Buwayhid's sovereigns, that is amir al-umara', bestowed the right of nawba on his subjects, and this nawba became the custom after the Adud al-Dawla (d. 982) period.In 1055, when the Saljuqid's sovereign Tughril-Bek (d. 1063) entered Baghdad, the Caliph bestowed the drum and trumpet upon him. With changes in the times, this right was granted to subjects. They freely beat their drums in the gateways of their residences or military tents to declare control over their domains. After that, in Persian the five-fold nawba (panj nowbat) came to mean insistence upon kingship.In this way, during the medieval Islamic period, the nawba was an important factor in considering kingship.