rebec

The rebec of medieval and Renaissance Europe that lives on today as a folk instrument in southeast Europe, is an adaption to Western use of the Near Eastern rabāb. This ancient plucked lute, documented from the eighth century on (see spike fiddle, page 480), is presumably identical with the plucked instrument mentioned by Theophylact Simocattes of Byzantium as lira in a reference to the year 583; certainly it was known by this name in western Europe when Otfrid of Weissenburg wrote...