 The modern oud is most likely derived from the Assyrian Lute.Similar instruments have been used in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia for thousands of years, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, North Africa, the Caucasus, the Levant, and Balkanic countries like Greece, Albania and Bulgaria; there may even be prehistoric antecedents of the lute.The oud, as a fundamental difference with the western lute, has no frets and a smaller neck.