Oud

The oud (pronounced “Ooood”) is one of the world’s oldest stringed instruments. The Arabic word oud (al-‘ūd, or in Turkish simply “ud”) refers to a thin piece of wood, or twig. This may have been the plectrum originally used to pluck the strings of the oud. Most scholars agree that this instrument dates back to at least 3000 BCE (the time of the Egyptian pyramids) and that it probably originated in an area of the Middle East now known as Iraq. Images of the instrument began to appear in works of art, as well as on decorative functional items, around this period. The oud’s popularity soon spread throughout other regions of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, as well as into North Africa and Central Asia.

The oud, in its various regional manifestations, eventually became the primary stringed instrument of the Classical World. Indeed, a majority of today’s Western stringed instruments (for example, the guitar, the lute, and the mandolin) evolved from the oud. This instrument has existed in its contemporary form for well over five hundred years now, and it continues to grow in popularity throughout the world.