The "Oud" Musical Instrument from the Middle East. London Street Music

The oud (Arabic: عود‎) is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped stringed instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of instruments) with 11 or 13 strings grouped in 5 or 6 courses, commonly used in Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Arabian, Jewish, Persian, Greek, Armenian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, North African (Chaabi, Classical, and Spanish Andalusian), Somali, and various other forms of Middle Eastern and North African music.

In the first centuries of (pre-Islamic) Arabian civilisation, the oud had 4 courses (one string per course – double-strings came later) only, tuned in successive fourths. These were called (for the lowest in pitch) the Bamm, then came (higher to highest in pitch) the Mathnā, the Mathlath and the Zīr. A fifth string (highest in pitch, lowest in its positioning in relation to other strings), called ḥād ("sharp"), was sometimes added for theoretical purposes, generally to complement the double octave.

In Pre-Islamic Arabia and Mesopotamia, oud for instance, used to consist of 3 strings only, with a small musical box and a long neck without any keys. But during the Islamic era the musical box was enlarged, another string was added (the number became 4), and the keys base (Bunjuk) was added. Historical sources indicate that Ziryab, has added a fifth string to the Oud. [4]

The Modern tuning preserves the ancient succession of fourths, with adjunctions (lowest or highest courses) which may be tuned differently following regional or personal preferences.

The first mention of an actual fifth string is by 11th-century musician, singer and author Abū-l-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn a-ṭ-Ṭaḥḥān in his compendium on music Ḥāwī al-Funūn wa Salwat al-Maḥzūn.