I've been browsing YouTube for interesting music today and posted a mini history of the guitar below...
The Moors brought a fretless, stringed instrument called the Oud to Spain when they invaded Europe. Al Oud means "the wood" in Arabic. The word oud became "lute" in English, and the European instrument had frets.
Here is a video of Farid Al Atrache playing an oud:
Below is Paul Odette demonstrating a Renaissance lute. These lutes had fewer strings than the later Baroque lutes.
John Dowland played on a Renaissance lute:
A toccata is a virtuoso piece. This is early Baroque period.
Here is a Baroque lute showing its many bass strings.
Here is a video from Chinese TV comparing a Baroque lute with a type of Chinese lute:
Lutes are found in many cultures. Here is a type of lute from Japan called a biwa:
The Baroque guitar was an early form of the guitar with 10 strings arranged in 5 pairs.
Here is a video of the modern classical guitar — an instrument that only dates back to the 19th century.
This post concludes with a video of the modern guitar: