Armenian Folk Songs and Dances - George Mgrdichian

The oud, ud, ut, ud, outi, or udi (depending on where it’s found) is a short-necked lutelike Middle Eastern instrument which long predates a ninth-century Iraqi myth of its creation claiming it was invented by Lamak, a direct descendent of Cain. According to this apocryphal tale, Lamak hung his son's remains from a tree; and as the body decomposed down to its skeleton, it suggested the graceful shape of the oud. Archeological evidence suggests that the oud developed during the third century in Iraq from a family of lyrelike instruments. One 14th-century Arab commentator with the resonant name of Abu al-Walid ibn Shihnah links the oud to the development and spread of Manicheism, a religious philosophy combining Zoroastrian, Christian, and Gnostic thought. The prophet Manes believed that music should accompany religious ritual, and Ibn Shihnan credits him with the invention of the instrument.