Rabāb Ash-Sha'ir
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Rabāb Ash-Sha'ir ("poet's fiddle") with 1 string, add a 2nd string and it is known as rabāb al-mughannī ("singer's fiddle"). These terms, used in Egypt for this 4-sided bowed lute, have lost their distinction and today the rabāba is the name in use. Most bowed lutes are constructed as spike fiddles with a wood or metal rod that penetrates the frame of the soundbox and terminates in a spike that rests on the ground when the instrument is bowed. Syria.
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