rebec(k)

Early string instrument of the violin type and of Arab origin, the ancestor of the violin family, though its shape is more like that of the mandolin, which is probably one of its descendants. It has three gut strings and is played with a bow. In France it survived until the 18th century, but only as a street instrument.

It is descended from the Arab rabab, a one- or two-stringed bowed fiddle still popular throughout the Arab world.