Women in Persian culture also played the spike-fiddle, as shown in the seventeenth-century image from a collection of poetry by Nizami (top), and the eighteenth-century image from India (bottom).
Top: Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) by Nizami (detail). Iran, Isfahan, Safavid period, 1645. Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper. Purchase–Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds, Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, S1986.483
Bottom: A group of women in a garden entertaining themselves with music and dancing (detail). India, mid-18th century. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1907.263.