The roots of the musical instrument Oud, can be found 3,500 years ago in Persia, where it was called Barbat (oud). This instrument was the same that ancient Egyptians used in Pharaoh times. This instrument was named Al Oud by the Arabians, which means wood and specifically thin wood. Surely, its first form was not the present one. We can make this opinion if we take a look at old Pictures-Gravures. These instruments, which were strung just like the Oud and violin, were not known to Arabs, who learnt them from Persian and Romans after the birth of Islam.

The first Arabian musician who started playing oud was Eben Sareeg and after him everyone started using it. The most popular musicians in the history of Oud are Shack Amusedly, Abraham Almighty and Zaryab. Oud is the king of the musical instruments in the Arab world.

I must mention that in the past, an Arab composer would write a song based only on the oud. Oud is a solo instrument for Taqasim (improvisations) and accompanied by song.

Technical features of the oud are that the sound box has the shape of a pear, short and sloppy elbow. The shape and the dimensions are different from place to place, like in Egypt and Syria and other Arabian states. It has a bigger depth shape in Turkey and lesser in Iraq or holes at the flap are open without rosettes.

In the past the oud had two strings, then it had four and it ended with five and six. Lebanon musician Far hat Hasher put seven strings and this helped us to have both the low and the high levels.

The strings that were used in the past were made of gut and the plectrum was made of cherry tree cortex or horn of animals. Today they are plastic.

Today Oud is popular almost all over the world. Since the 9th century the musical tradition of the Mediterranean Sea was practically based on the oud. In Medieval times, the Crusaders brought this instrument from the Holy Lands to Europe, where it became the Renaissance Lute, and Lute in Minor Asia, where it remains as this.

The oud is one of the few instruments of the East and the only one for Arabs, which played and transformed the music levels, known as makams. A makam is composed from a four-stringed "4 notes" and from a five-stringed "5 notes" where they alternate from makam to makam. The number of makams is extensive and different from country to country. For example, in Turkey - Egypt it differs mostly in the style and less to the musical scales. Many times the musical scales are the same but they are played with different style and it seems they change makam, while in reality it remains the same. I believe that the bloom of music makam was around 1850 because at this time there were a big number of makams composed and played.

Nowadays musicians do not compose such large amounts of makams and the basic reason for this is that a musician of 1850 had a brighter mind than from a musician of today. The depth of makam is so large that you need to live twice to say that you have learnt or played or understood all makams.