Thiner than bass string and thicker than high string
بم
Bam
بم
Bam
Third/High String
The thinest string out of all the three main strings
زېر
Zer
زیر
Zir
Construction
2011 postal stamp of Azerbaijan depicting a 19th century Rubab.
The body is carved out of a single piece of wood, with a head covering a hollow bowl which provides the sound-chamber. The bridge sits on the skin and is held in position by the tension of the strings. It has three melody strings tuned in fourths, two or three drone strings and up to 15 sympathetic strings. The instrument is made from the trunk of a mulberry tree, the head from an animal skin such as goat, and the strings from the intestines of young goats (gut) or nylon.
The rubab is known as "the lion of instruments" and is one of the two national instruments of Afghanistan (with the zerbaghali).[3] Classical Afghan music often features this instrument as a key component. Elsewhere it is known as the Kabuli rebab in contrast to the Seni rebab of India.[3] In appearance, the Kabuli rubab looks slightly different from the Indian rubab.[5] It is the ancestor of the north Indian sarod, although unlike the sarod, it is fretted.[6]
The rubab was the first instrument used in Sikhism; it was used by Bhai Mardana, companion of the first guru, Guru Nanak. Whenever a shabad was revealed to Guru Nanak he would sing and Bhai Mardana would play on his rubab; he was known as a rababi. The rubab playing tradition is carried on by Sikhs such as Namdharis.
Young man with Iranian rubab, 16th century, Safavid Empire. 8-shaped body resembles a tar, but tars have both sides of the 8 covered with hide. Rubabs had a lower section covered with hide, and an upper hollow section covered with wood.
Abbasid era rubab, painted on the inside of a bowl, 10th century C. E. The instrument has two strings.
Variants
Photograph of rabab players (rababis) titled 'Lute Players Near the Golden Temple', taken on 28 January 1903
In northern India, the seni rebab, which emerged during the Mughal Empire, has "a large hook at the back of its head, making it easier for a musician to sling it over the shoulder and play it even while walking."[3] The Sikh rabab was traditionally a local Punjabi variant known as the 'Firandia' rabab (Punjabi: ਫਿਰੰਦੀਆ ਰਬਾਬ Phiradī'ā rabāba),[8][9][10][11] however Baldeep Singh, an expert in the Sikh musical tradition, challenges this narrative.[12][13]
In Tajikistan a similar but somewhat distinct rubab-i-pamir (Pamiri rubab) is played, employing a shallower body and neck.[14] The rubab of the Pamir area has six gut strings, one of which, rather than running from the head to the bridge, is attached partway down the neck, similar to the fifth string of the American banjo.[15]
^Kak, Siddharth (1982). Cinema Vision India, Volume 2. Siddharth Kak. p. 25. The rubab of Kabul is very similar to the sarod. The Indian rubab looks different. The sarod is a blend of these two rubabs.
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