Arabic musical instruments can be broadly classified into three categories:

string instruments String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the Str ...

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chordophones String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the Str ...

wind instruments A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

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aerophones An aerophone () is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instru ...

), and

percussion instruments A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excl ...

. They evolved from ancient civilizations in the region. Kanun, and mode of playing it, p

Chordophones

Plucked lutes

Oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...

Qanbūs A ''qanbūs'' ( ar, قنبوس) is a short-necked lute that originated in Yemen and spread throughout the Arabian peninsula. Sachs considered that it derived its name from the Turkic komuz, but it is more comparable to the oud. The instrument ...

Buzuq The ''buzuq'' ( ar, ; also transliterated ''bozuq'', ''bouzouk'', buzuk etc.) is a long-necked fretted lute related to the Greek bouzouki and Turkish saz. It is an essential instrument in the Rahbani repertoire, but it is not classified a ...

* Awtar * Lutar *

Sintir The sintir ( ar, سنتير), also known as the guembri (), gimbri or hejhouj or Garaya in Hausa language, is a three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people. It is approximately the size of a guitar, with a body carv ...

Tez kara

Zithers

* Qanun * Iraqi Santur

Bowed lutes

* Jawzah * Ghuanbri *

Kamancheh The kamancheh (also kamānche or kamāncha) ( fa, کمانچه, az, kamança, hy, Քամանչա, ku, کەمانچە ,kemançe) is an Iranian bowed string instrument used in Persian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Turkmen, and ...

Rababa The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via ...

Lyres

Simsimiyya {{short description, Traditional Egyptian string instrument The ''simsimiyya'' (Egyptian Arabic: سمسمية, and سنسمية ''sinsimia/sinsimiyya''; pl. ''simsimiyyāt/sinsimiyyāt'') is an indigenous Egyptian stringed instrument that has its ...

Kissar The ''kissar'' (also spelled ''kissir''), tanbour or gytarah barbaryeh is the traditional Nubian lyre, still in use in Egypt, Sudan and Abyssinia. It consists of a body having instead of the traditional tortoise-shell back, a shallow, round ...

* Tanbūra *

Jewish Lyre Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

Aerophones

Flutes

Ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continually ...

* Kawalah *

Salamiyah A full view of Shmemis (spring 1995) Salamieh ( ar, سلمية ') is a city and district in western Syria, in the Hama Governorate. It is located southeast of Hama, northeast of Homs. The city is nicknamed the "mother of Cairo" because it was t ...

* Minjayrah * Shababah * Shakuli * Furayrah * Kasab

Reed instruments

* Mizmar * Khalul (Gulfian Mizmar) * Ghayta *

Arghul The ''arghul'' ( ar, أرغول or يرغول), also spelled ''argul'', ''arghoul'', ''arghool'', ''argol'', or ''yarghul'', is a musical instrument in the reed family. It has been used since ancient Egyptian times and is still used as a trad ...

* Zumarah bi suwan * Maqrunah *

Mijwiz The ''mijwiz'' ( ar, , DIN: ''miǧwiz'') is a traditional Middle East musical instrument popular in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Its name in Arabic means "dual," because of its consisting of two, short, bamboo pipes with reed tips p ...

* Haban (Gulfian Bagpipe) * Jirbah (East Tunisian Bagpipe) *

Mizwad The mizwad (mezoued, mizwid) (Tunisian Arabic : مِزْود; plural مَزاود mazāwid, literally "sack," “bag,” or “food pouch”) is a type of bagpipes played in Tunisia, . The instrument consists of a skin bag made from ewe's leath ...

(West Tunisian Bagpipe) * Zughra (Moroccan Bagpipe) * Saksifun (Arabic Saxophone)

Trumpets

Nafir ''Nafir'' (Arabic نَفير, DMG ''an-nafīr''), also ''nfīr'', plural ''anfār'', Turkish ''nefir'', is a slender shrill-sounding straight natural trumpet with a cylindrical tube and a conical metal bell, producing one or two notes. It was ...

Percussion instruments

Drums and frame drums

* Riq * Daf * Bendir * Dumbaki * Duhulah * Drinjah * Bass Drinjah * Khishbah * Kasurah * Tabl Tsjikangha * Tabl Masanduw * Tabl Bib *

Taarija A taarija (plural: ''ta'arij'') is a Moroccan membranophone ( drum), single skin and tube, played singly, unlike the tabla, which is a pair of drums, and is related to the darbouka. While the tube may be metal (e.g., silver), it is typically made ...

Tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...

Tar Barashim Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bi ...

(Shake Tar) * Tar Mirjaf (Low Tar) * Tar Saghul (High Tar) * Katim *

Mirwas The ''mirwās'' or ''marwas'' ( ar, مرواس), plural ''marāwīs'' ( ar, مراويس) is a small double-sided, high-pithced hand drum originally from the Middle East. It is a popular instrument in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, used i ...

* Zir (Naqarah) * Qas'ah *

Tbilat The tbilat is a percussion instrument from Morocco which resembles bongos and tabla. It consists of a pair of decorated pottery drums, each with different size. The skinheads are stretched by plaited gut cords. This membranophone A membranophon ...

Tabl Bahri Tabl may refer to: * Tabl, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province, Iran * A Persian name for the Indian drums known as tabla * A large drum from Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and the Middle East also known as davul The davul, dhol, tapan, atabal ...

(Khamari & Laauwb) *

Tabl Hajir Tabl may refer to: * Tabl, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province, Iran * A Persian name for the Indian drums known as tabla * A large drum from Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and the Middle East also known as davul The davul, dhol, tapan, atabal ...

(Khamari & Laauwb) * Tabl Nasayfi (Khamari & Laauwb) * Al Ras *

Mazhar The ''mazhar'' ( ar, مزهر; plural ''mazāhar'', مزاهر) is a large, heavy tambourine used in Arabic music. The mazhar's frame is generally made out of wood. Its single head is considerably thicker than that of the '' riq'', its smaller ...

Other percussion

* Shakhshikhah (Sistrum) * Sajat * Turah (Egyptian Sajat) * Twaysat (Gulf Sajat) *

Krakebs Qraqeb or garagab ( ar, قراقب), in English often transliterated as krakeb, are a large iron castanet-like musical instrument primarily used as the rhythmic aspect of Gnawa music. Gnawa today is part of the North African culture and is inhe ...

Hawan Yajna ( sa, यज्ञ, yajña, translit-std=IAST, sacrifice, devotion, worship, offering) refers in Hinduism to any ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras.SG Nigal (1986), Axiological Approach to the Vedas, Northern Book ...

* Yahalah/Jahalah (Clay jug) * Manjur * Mihbaj * Maalaqa * Safqa (Arabic hand clap) {{Arabic musical instruments Arabic musical instruments Lists of musical instruments