Instruments

I am doing my summery on middle eastern instruments. The first instrument I'm going to talk about is the Oud. The Oud is a stringed instrument. Some times they spelled it ud. It was the forerunner to the lute that was used in Medieval Europe. It is pronounced ''ood'' where the ''oo'' sound is like that in "moon". It has 11 strings and no frets. The melody is produced through plucking the strings. Literally,the word "oud" means wood. The instrument is made by gluing thin tapered strips of wood, edge to edge. The glue line is sometimes no more than a thousandth of an inch wide. The oud was introduced by the Persians to Arabia in the middle ages, and passed to Europe through Islamic Spain. The kanoun, sometimes spelled Kahn or Canon, somewhat resembles an autoharp. It is common in Turkey and Arabic countries. Its wooden frame is designed to lie flat on a surface such as a table or the performer's lap, and the strings across it are plucked for the melody.