an oud from Syria

A few years ago, before I got obsessed with fixing fiddles, I found a lovely oud on gumtree. I was told it was made in Syria by a well-known maker around 2000. Back then, I didn't quite get my head round to learning to play it but I reckon now that I have figured out how to play folk tunes on the fiddle I should try again. It also helped that I saw a very inspiring oud recital by Wassim Mukdad (also from Syria) at the JDP in October. If in doubt, I could always tune it as a fiddle ...

So it looks like this:

And here's the label - a helpful facebook friend kindly translated it for me:

Oud Al-Sharq Al-Asil (which means “The Authentic Eastern Oud”)
Made by Mohammad Sobhi & Sons
Damascus – Jobar
Hammama Jadbani Awwal (a local area or landmark name)

A practical consideration: it came in a very heavy hard case, additionally protected by a soft bag inside the case. I now worked out that the oud with the soft bag fits inside my cello bag, so it is actually transportable. Which means I might try it in the slow session ...

Update 9.12.2025 I've now played it properly for the first time at today's harp session, and it sounds lovely even if I say so myself. I used the classic tuning (high notes to low) CGDAGD - which is very convenient to me because the higher four strings are an upside down cello (and then the bass strings just repeat the middle GD an octave below). So cello fingering re when to use second and when third finger applies in a mirror version, and the keys that are really easy on cello in first position (C, G, D) are just as easy on oud, and you can forget the fourth finger because it's tuned in 4ths, so the fourth finger is equivalent to the next string. The fifth is very conveniently located exactly on the seam where the fingerboard ends and meets the body of the instrument, so that's very easy to find too.