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Images from The Beede
Gallery
Short-Necked Lute (Robab, Rabab), Afghanistan, 19th Century
NMM 1502. Short-necked lute (robab, rabab), Afghanistan, 19th century. Body and neck carved from a single piece of mulberry wood. Lower chamber of the body covered in goatskin; upper chamber covered by the end of the fingerboard. Bone and mother-of-pearl inlay. Twelve sympathetic strings pass under the five playing strings and two drones. The instrument has four gut frets and is played with a wooden plectrum. The robab is considered the national instrument of Afghanistan. Length: 813 mm. Ringley Fund, 1977.
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Views of Pegbox
Front of Neck and Pegs for Sympathetic Strings
Inlaid Decoration on Back of Neck and Body
Views of Bouts
Bridge and Lower End
Literature
Thomas E. Cross, Instruments of Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand and Tibet, The Shrine to Music Museum Catalog of the Collections, Vol. II, André P. Larson, editor (Vermillion: The Shrine to Music Museum, 1982), p. 17.
Thomas E. Cross, Instruments of Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand and Tibet, M.M. Thesis, University of South Dakota, May 1983, p. 36, plate XIV.
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National Music Museum
The University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
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