Byzantine lyra

Byzantine lyra
	Earliest known depiction of lyra in a Byzantine ivory casket (900 – 1100 AD). (Museo Nazionale, Florence)
String instrument
Other names	Byzantine lyra, lira, lūrā, Rum Kemençe, medieval fiddle, pear-shaped rebec
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	321.321–71; (Necked bowl lute sounded by a bow)
Developed	9th century AD
Related instruments
	Classical lyra, (Greek: Πολίτικη Λύρα, Turkish: Armudî kemençe); Pandura; Kemenche; Cello; Lijerica (Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [lijɛritsa]); Lira (Calabrian) (Italian: Lira Calabrese); Lira da braccio; Lyra (Cretan) (Greek: Λύρα); Lyre (terminology); Fiddle; Gadulka (Bulgarian: Гъдулка); Gusle; Gudok (Russian: гудок Ukrainian: гудок); Rabāb (Arabic الرباب); Violin;

The Byzantine lyra or lira (Greek: λύρα) was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. In its popular form, the lyra was a pear-shaped instrument with three to five strings, held upright and played by stopping the strings from the side with the fingertips and fingernails. The oldest known depiction of the instrument is on a Byzantine ivory casket, dated to circa 900–1100 AD, preserved in the Bargello in Florence (Museo Nazionale, Florence, Coll. Carrand, No.26).^[1] Modern variants of the lyra are still played throughout the Balkans and in areas surrounding the Black Sea (and most of the historical territories of the Byzantine Empire), including Greece, Crete (Cretan lyra), Karpathos (Karpathian lyra), Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria (the gadulka), North Macedonia, Croatia (Dalmatian lijerica), Italy (the Calabrian lira), Turkey (the politiki lyra and the Pontic lyra or kemençe) and Armenia.^{[citation needed]}