Made in Arabic
rebec
الرَّباب
A bowed rabāb from Algeria or Morocco: a boat-shaped body of carved wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, a skin belly, and its bow. It is still an instrument of the Andalusi ensembles of North Africa, played upright with its rounded end on the player's lap. This one is 19th-century, but the Met notes that the rabāb reached Spain with the Moors and, from about 1300, lent its name to Europe's early fiddle: Arabic rabāb became Old French rebebe and then rebec.
- Instrument
- a rabāb with its bow, Algeria or Morocco, 19th century
The path between languagesrabāb → rebeb → rebebe → rebec
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ملكٌ عامّ
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