Rabab; double-chested lute

Rabab, short-necked lute. The deep body and the neck are carved from one piece of wood. The resonator is waisted with the upper and lower chambers hollowed out. The back of the instrument has a carved feather-like pattern at the waist. Skin soundtable. The upper chamber is covered with a piece of wood partly perforated with sound holes that extends over the short neck to form the fingerboard. The top of the neck has a border of bone shapes on a black background. The peg-box has an ornately carved finial. The peg-box has three left and three right side-entrant pegs with star shaped heads for three double courses of playing strings that pass over a wooden nut and a wide, straight edged wooden bridge. The upper chamber has side entrant pegs of similar design for the eleven sympathetic strings that emerge through holes in the upper soundtable in a diagonal line, each passing over a small round bridge of bone. The sympathetic strings pass through holes in the bridge beneath the playing strings. The strings are secured to two endpins at the base of the resonator.