The origin of the term rubāb is still unclear, but is thought to be initially related to bowed stringed lutes. For some specialists, it has Arabic origins and is affiliated with the word rabbaThis is the case of the British ethnomusicologist Henry George Farmer. (Farmer 1931 : p. 100). The meaning of this word is appropriate to the instrumental gesture of the bow passing over the strings and uniting them into a continuous sound. For others, the term is Persian and has no precise meaning. There is also an esoteric explanation, based on the Arabic words ruh’soul’ and bāb ‘door’. Thus, the word rubāb would mean ‘the door of the soul’. Although this proposal evokes the mystical writings of the poet Rūmi, it does not respect Arabic syntax: we say ’ bāb al ruh ‘ and not the other way round. There are several transcriptions of the word rubāb: rabāb, rebāb, rabōb, but also rawap (among the Uyghur people). The transcription most commonly used in the West is rubāb, pronounced as follows: the ‘r’ is slightly rolled, the ‘u’ is pronounced like an ‘or’, as in a ‘wheel’. Finally, the ‘ā’ is pronounced almost like a closed ‘o’.
Since the 14th , the term rubāb refers to the family of Central Asian lutes whose soundboard is made of parchment-like skin, usually from goat or kid. The strings are plucked with a plectrum. This distinguishes it from the Arabic or Maghrebian r’bāb , both of which are bowed string instruments.
Adrian McNeil explains that the designations ‘Afghan rubāb’ or ‘Afghani rubāb’ are not very old; they would have been invented by the Hindustani population to differentiate this instrument, played at that time mainly by Afghans, from their own rubāb, the one designated by the term ‘Afghan rubāb’. seniya, ’seniya rubāb’, found in the dhrupadgenre. Adrian McNeil also explains that, prior to the invention of the term rubāb, the instrument used by the Afghans was called the sarod and those who play it sarodi. He also points out that in Afghanistan, the instrument was known as the surud [sarod] and not rubāb (McNeil 2004, pp. 28-30). Allyn Miner points out that the term sarod only appeared in the literature from 1830 onwards, and at that time it was impossible to differentiate between the two instruments. (Miner, 1997, p.67). By studying old sarodor Afghan rubāb, from museum collections, we can see that there is no difference between them. It was not until the second half of the 19th century and the introduction of a metal fingerboard so that the sarod is definitely distinct from the Afghan rubāb. To erase any filiation with the Afghan rubāb, Hindustani luthiers chose to draw inspiration from the rubāb's shape seniya to produce their sarod.
The word sarod (according to the transliteration most commonly used in the West) is derived from Persian sorūd which translates as ‘hymn’ or ‘melody’. Today, it still refers to two types of necked cordophone: a fiddle, played by the Baluchi and Pakistani populations (also called soruz), and the Hindustani lute we have just seen.
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