Kāmanja

Kāmanja pl. kuamenj (Arab.) [*kamānja], Arab. *spike fiddle of Pers. origin, with small round or heart-shaped body, often of coconut, a long neck, long metal spike, and 2 or 4 strings, generally 2 tuned a 4th apart and secured by lateral pegs. Still played with a primitive bow. Today the kāmanja is played in the Near East but is extinct in the Maghrib. In Egypt its body is a half coconut and its belly is of fishskin. Nowadays the word kāmanja means viola or violin in most of N. Africa, where…