Abu Nasr Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Farabi, the Muslim scholar known
to many as Alpharabius and born about 872, said the oud was
invented by Noah's grandfather, Lamech - the sixth grandson of
Adam and Eve. He was supposedly inspired to create the
instrument after hanging the body of his dead son from a tree.
The shape of the oud, legend suggests, resembled the shape of
the son's skeleton. Other writers have praised the oud for its
healing powers. The 19th-century writer Muhammad Shihab Al Din
described those properties in his book, Safinat Al Mulk: "It
places the temperament in equilibrium ... it calms and revives
hearts."