This category includes sites pertaining to the playing, history, construction, and performers of the stringed instrument known as the oud. The oud is a Middle Eastern and North African fretless lute. Originally from the region of present-day Baghdad and Tehran, it once had four strings that were tuned in fourths. Modern-day ouds have between 10 and 13 strings and are played with a plectrum known as a risha, mezrab, or mezrap. Some famous players of the oud have included: Greek: Yorgo Barcanos Armenian: Udi Hrant Kenouklian, Udi Marko Melkon Turkish: Cinuçen Tanrikorur, Necati Çelik, Yurdal Tokcan, Udi Nevres Bey, Targan Lebanese: Farid al-Atrach Egyptian: Mohammed abd al-Wahab, Riyad as-Sinbati Nubian: Hamza al-Din Iraqi: Munir Bachir, Omar Bachir, Nasser Shamma Scandanavian: Anouar Brahen Armenian-American: Ara Dinkjan, John Bilezekian, Haig Manoukian ++++ In Persian music (and the Farsi language), the oud is also known as the barbat. The oud/barbat is commonly believed to be the ancestor of the European lute and guitar, and in the Arab world is definitively considered the ancestor of the tanbur, saz, and buzuq (bazouki).