The 'ûd 'arbî, a plucked-string lute, is the melodic soul of the malouf. It profoundly shaped the scale and modes of Arab music.
The oud ('ûd, "lute") is a plucked-string instrument, played with a plectrum (the risha). Until the early twentieth century, the classical Tunisian orchestra counted only two melodic instruments: the oud and the rebab.
It is said that the lute so shaped the singing of the Arabs that "their scale and their modes have kept an indelible imprint of it." To this day, it continues to guide the ensemble with the same mastery as in times past.
Compared with the oriental lute, the Maghrebi lute has a more compact body and a noticeably longer neck; its soundboard and ribs form a rounded part cut from fairly thick boards of wood.
It seems to have been designed for more vigorous playing and for performance outdoors. The length of the neck allows the hand to reach beyond the upper quarter of the strings.
The Tunisian lute is strung with four paired courses (tuning dîl at the bottom, then octave, fifth, fourth). It is called 'ûd 'arbî (Arab), as opposed to the 'ûd maçrî (Egyptian/oriental); in Morocco, it is known as the kwitra.
The Maghrebis attribute an Andalusian origin to their lute: along with the rebab, it symbolises for them the music inherited from Muslim Spain.
The soundboard (wajh) is made of light wood; it is adorned with an openwork rosette (shamsiyya, "little sun") about 15 cm across, and protected from the strokes of the plectrum by a plate (raqm).
Relatively difficult to play, the Tunisian oud demands long training: only fine musicians manage to play it cleanly. It is the oud that, in the nûba, leads the interlude reserved for the lute (the mshad) and accompanies the solo song (the qaçîda).
