Nazih Ghadban is one of the few remaining makers of the oud instrument. He’s handcrafted them at his small Lebanese village since 1976.

The oud is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped stringed instrument, usually with 11 strings grouped in 6 courses, but some models have 5 or 7 courses, with 10 or 13 strings respectively. The oud is very similar to modern lutes, and also to Western lutes.