Guitar

Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides".[1] Instruments similar to the guitar have been popular for at least 5,000 years. The six string classical guitar first appeared in Spain, but was itself the product of a long and complex history of diverse influences. Like virtually all other stringed European instruments, the guitar ultimately traces back thousands of years, via the Near East, to a common ancient origin from instruments then known in central Asia and India. It is distantly related with contemporary instruments such as the tanbur, setar, and the Indian sitar. The oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying all the essential features of a guitar being played is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard.[2] The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from Spanish guitarra (German Gitarre, French Guitare),[3] loaned from the Andalusian Arabic qitara[4] and Latin cithara, which in turn was derived from the earlier Greek word kithara,[5] which is related to Old Persian sihtar.[6]
Illustration from a Carolingian Psalter from the 9th century, showing a guitar-like plucked instrument.

The modern guitar is descended from the Roman cithara brought by the Romans to Hispania around 40 AD, and further adapted and developed with the arrival of the four-string oud, brought by the Moors after their conquest of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century.[7] Elsewhere in Europe, the indigenous six-string Scandinavian lut (lute), had gained in popularity in areas of Viking incursions across the continent. Often depicted in carvings c. 800 AD, the Norse hero Gunther (also known as Gunnar), played a lute with his toes as he lay dying in a snake-pit, in the legend of Siegfried.[8] By 1200 AD, the four string "guitar" had evolved into two types: the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several soundholes, and the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) which resembled the modern guitar with one soundhole and a narrower neck.[9]