The Arabic word for violin is “kamanja”. Most historians agree that this instrument emerged in the early 16th century in northern Italy, an area which maintained the violin-making tradition until today. 

Partly because the two types of wood most favored by violin makers “Maple and spruce”, were readily available in the Lombardy region. Though the city Brescia, in the Alps, was famous in the crafting of violins, Cremona, home to the world’s known luthiers “Giuseppe Guarneri, Antonio Stradivari“, and “the Amati family“, became synonymous with the art of violin making

The violin is used in the modern Iraqi Maqam musical style. Traditionally the Iraqi Maqam is a vocal performance given “Acappella”, but later different instruments like the modern violin, the joze, the santur (dulcimer) the daf(tambourine), and the doumbek (goblet drum) are used to accompany the reciter (the maqam singer). This traditional instrumental group is called chalghi baghdadi.