Related Artwork: Arab Music from Iraq: Rahim Alhaj, oud; Souhail Kaspar, percussion

China, Northern Qi dynasty; 550–557; F1915.336.<

The oud, with its characteristic bent-neck and pear-shaped body, originated in the Middle East and was taken along the Silk Road to East Asia beginning in the third century. The earliest images of an oud-like instrument in the Freer and Sackler collections appear on a Chinese stone funerary couch from the sixth century. The Central Asian performers depicted here reflect the cosmopolitan character of the Northern Qi dynasty, established in China by people of Turkic origin in 550. Starting in the seventh century, the imported oud was transformed by Chinese instrument-makers into the similarly-shaped pipa, still widely played today.

left: China, probably Turfan, Tang dynasty, 8th century, polychrome on stucco, S1987.265; right: Wood, Japan, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1903.285

The eighth-century painting on the left probably comes from one of the Buddhist caves of Turfan, an important Silk Road oasis center in present-day Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a part of far northwest China that later converted to Islam. The figure probably represents one of the many celestial musicians (feitian or apsaras) who are often depicted accompanying the Buddha. The undated Japanese object on the right shows another Buddhist apsara playing a biwa, as the pipa is known in Japan.

Shiraz, probably Iran; Timurid period, 1433–34; S1986.33.
The fifth-century Persian king Bahram Gur is entertained by a woman playing a pear-shaped, bend-necked instrument known as a barbat, progenitor of the modern oud, in this fifteenth-century painting. According to the poet Nizami (1141–1209), Bahram Gur maintained seven castles, each in a different color and housing a different female companion. In sixteenth-century paintings in our collections, each castle is also depicted providing a distinct musical ensemble with its own combination of instruments.