Spike fiddle of northern Afghanistan and the Turkmen, Uzbek, Uighur, Tajik and Karakalpak peoples in Central Asia. The instrument is mentioned in 10th-century manuscripts which indicate that almond shells were used to construct the bridge (harrak). The ghidjak depicted in 15th-century Persian miniature paintings is similar in construction to the 20th-century ghidjak.
Among the more westerly Central Asian peoples the ghidjak (or ghichak, gidzha, gijak) resembles the Persian Kamāncheh; it has a short, fretless neck, a spherical resonator with a skin soundtable and three or four strings. During the 19th century the Uzbeks made ghidjaks with two, three, four or seven strings, but by the end of the 20th century only the four-string ghidjak was in use in Uzbekistan. It is played as a solo instrument and is also used to accompany singers. The Karakalpaks know it as the ghirzhak, and related instruments include the Azerbaijani kemancha and the Andijan kaman.
In northern Afghanistan the instrument has the following form. The brightly painted round neck of the ghidjak projects through the resonator and a large iron nail 810 cm long is hammered into the bottom of the neck to serve as the spike. The top of the neck is grooved to form a pegbox with two lateral tuning-pegs, one each side. The neck is turned on a lathe and the resonator, usually fitted by the player, often consists of a large square tin, for instance a one-gallon oil can. The instrument has two metal strings supported by a nut at the head and by a bridge placed on the resonator. The bow is of horsehair tied to a curved stick; tension is applied by the fingers of the right hand. The strings may be bowed together or singly by rotating the instrument slightly. A modified type of ghidjak has recently come into use; it has a resonator carved from a square block of walnut or mulberry wood, with a skin belly and eight sympathetic strings with tuning-pegs along the side of the neck.
The origins of the ghidjak are not known, but the instrument is mentioned in 10th-century manuscripts which indicate that almond shells were used to construct the bridge (harak). The ghidjak depicted in 15th-century Persian miniature paintings is similar in construction to the 20th-century ghidjak but has a longer spike.
K. Vertkov, G. Blagodatov and E. Yazovitskaya, eds.: Atlas muzīkal'nīkh instrumentov naradov SSSR (Moscow, 1963, 2/1975 with 4 discs)
M. Slobin: Music in the Culture of Northern Afghanistan (Tucson, 1976), 2438
T. Levin: The Hundred Thousand Fools of God (Bloomington, IN, 1996)
JOHN BAILY, RAZIA SULTANOVA