Oud

The oud (عود, ʕuːd;) is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of instruments), usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have five or seven courses, with 10 or 13 strings respectively. The oud is very similar to other types of lute, and to Western lutes since Western lutes were developed out of the Medieval Islamic Oud. Similar instruments have been used in the Middle East, North Africa (specifically the Maghreb, Egypt and Sudan), and Central Asia for thousands of years, including Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, the Levant, Greek Anatolia, Albania and Bulgaria; there may even be prehistoric antecedents of the lute. The oud, as a fundamental difference with the western lute, has no frets and a smaller neck. It is the direct successor of the Persian Barbat lute. The oldest surviving oud is thought to be in Brussels, at the Museum of Musical Instruments. An early description of the "modern" oud was given by 11th-century musician, singer and author Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (965–1040) in his compendium on music Ḥāwī al-Funūn wa Salwat al-Maḥzūn. The first known complete description of the ‛ūd and its construction is found in the epistle Risāla fī-l-Luḥūn wa-n-Nagham by 9th-century philosopher of the Arabs Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī. Kindī's description stands thus: [and the] length [of the ‛ūd] will be: thirty-six joint fingers—with good thick fingers—and the total will amount to three ashbār. And its width: fifteen fingers. And its depth seven and a half fingers. And the measurement of the width of the bridge with the remainder behind: six fingers. Remains the length of the strings: thirty fingers and on these strings take place the division and the partition, because it is the sounding [or "the speaking"] length. This is why the width must be [of] fifteen fingers as it is the half of this length. Similarly for the depth, seven fingers and a half and this is the half of the width and the quarter of the length [of the strings].