Oud: Djibouti musical instrument

The oud is a plucked lute that has short neck just like the European lute. It has a pear-shaped body and is most commonly used by the Arabic, Jewish, Greek, North African, Middle East and the Somali music. It is made up of a strong round neck and a flat front surface. The soundboard has a big sound hole that is bored on it and the hole is greatly and plainly decorated. The bridge holds the strings and stands at about 10cm from the lower part of the sound box. The construction of oud is almost the same with the construction of the lute. The modern day oud and the European lute both came from one ancestor through disparity paths. This musical instrument which is considered to be a senior to the guitar is readily differentiated by its lack of frets and its possession of smaller neck.

source: liberapedia.wikia.com

Although the Arabic “al-ʿūd” literally means a tiny wood that is similar to the shape of a straw and may also be used to refer to the wooden plectrum that is used to play the oud, to the thin wood that is found at the back of the instrument, or the soundboard that differentiated it from all other similar musical instrument that has skin-faced bodies, the origin of the name oud given to the musical instrument has not been fully uncovered. Most recent research suggested that the name might have been from the Persian language “rud” which means string, stringed instrument or the lute.

According to Farabi, Lamech who is the sixth grandson of Adam was the original inventor of this musical instrument. He opined that Lamech who hung the body of his dead son on a tree built the first oud from the inspiration of the shape of his dead son’s bleached skeleton.

The oldest illustrations or photographs of a lute traced back to Uruk era in the southern Mesopotamia over 5000 years of the past on a cylinder seal obtained by Dr. Dominique Collon. A similar instrument that is in use by the Turkish people is called “kopus”, this musical instrument which was believed to have possessed magical powers were taken to the battle and used the military band. The military band as noted in the Gokturk monument inscriptions was later used by the Turkic armies and later used the Europeans. The oud is a very long tradition in Iraq region that has a saying “its music lies on the soul of the country”. A Baghdad jurist, who existed in the 9^th century, praised the healing powers of the musical instrument.

A plectrum which is also called risha is a material that can be used in playing the musical instrument. The risha were made traditionally of the eagle’s feathers and the shell of the tortoise as well as the cow horn. In the modern day, the cow horn rishas are readily available; the horns are made into shapes and strips after which it is sanded. Modern picks can as well be produced of a plastic or rubber of which all of them have different sound quality.