Arabian Musical Instruments on a Thirteenth Century Bronze Bowl

Extract

One does not expect absolute fidelity of outline or intricacy of structure in any delineation to be found in the so-called industrial arts, but because of the scarcity of miniatures and other paintings and drawings in Arabic manuscripts, one has to fall back on this medium frequently for our ideas of the outline and structure of instruments of music at various periods of history. Indeed, some of our earliest iconographical specimens of instruments come from this source.