Fiddles

The medieval Fiddle emerged in 10th-century Europe, deriving from the Byzantine lira, a bowed string instrument of the Byzantine Empire and ancestor of most European bowed instruments.  The first recorded reference to the bowed lira was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Khurradadhbih in his lexicographical discussion of instruments he cited the lira as a typical instrument of the By zantines and equivalent to the rabab played in the Islamic Empires. Lira spread widely westward to Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments.