The Oud: An Illustrated History

Musician Beckles Willson (Orientalism and Musical Mission) scrupulously traces the history of the oud—a short-necked, fretless stringed musical instrument—from its first written mention in ancient Persia to the present day. An instrument long associated with bereavement (an early fable holds that a grieving father constructed it from his deceased son’s bones and sinews, “played it, wept, and sang the first lament”), ouds of the past accommodated between four and seven double courses of strings, were often custom-designed for their owners, and were crafted from wood, while modern versions can also be partly fashioned of carbon fiber and have commanded prices up to more than a half-million dollars. Through history, the instrument followed shifting fault lines between East and West: ubiquitous in many Abbasid courts, and played in particular by thousands of women at festive gatherings, the oud was brought by Arab people to southern Europe between the ninth and 13th centuries. From there, it spread northward, and eventually became the lute. In the 20th century, following the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution and the Armenian Genocide, refugees carried the instrument around the world. Generously illustrated and embedded with QR codes that link to YouTube videos of oud players in action, this is both a rich cultural history and a thoughtful analysis of the shifting global dynamics that gave the oud its reach. Music lovers will be captivated. (Nov.)