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Rebab

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An early bowed string instrument from the Islamic world, ancestor of the European rebec

Detailed Definition
The rebab’s nasal, expressive tone appears in medieval and Islamic poetry to symbolize spiritual yearning, courtly refinement, and musical transmission; its role in Sufi rituals makes it a metaphor for the soul’s journey and the voice of divine love in lyrical contexts.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ottoman poets linked rebab to divine love: “Rebab’s bow draws tears from stone”; Its spike fiddle channels mystic longing; “Two strings, two worlds—rebab bridges earth and sky”; In diaspora verse, the rebab’s cry is memory: “Istanbul dreams in my rebab’s horsehair.”
Additional Notes
The rebab (or rabab) refers to various bowed lutes in Islamic cultures, from Morocco to Indonesia; typically with one to three strings and a skin-covered body, it carries spiritual and narrative roles—poets can reference it to explore the spread of Islam through sound, the intimacy of bowed string in devotional contexts, or the rebab as ancestor of European violins.
Also Known As
Rebab fiddle spike fiddle
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