Under the names of rabel, arrabel, or rebab, the rebec has survived into our century as a folk instrument in parts of southeastern Europe and in the Near East. When
Carl Engel
wrote (1874), the rabel or arrabel was in occasional use among the country people
of Spain; it is still played in Estremadura. The name by which it was known to Byzantium, lira, has likewise come down to us, together with the instrument: today it thrives in Greece, Crete,...
