Algeria
Algerian

Wood, metal strings, mother-of-pearl, bone
Late 20th century
Chordophone – Lute – Spiked

This Algerian mandole (mandol, mondol) has eight (double course) steel-strings, an almond shaped body with a flat back, a wide fretted neck resembling an elongated mandolin, and the typical diamond shaped sound hole and has a scratch plate below the sound hole.   This modern mondole has two extra (quarter tone) frets, between the 1st and 2nd, and between the 3rd and 4th frets.  It is popular in Algerian Kabyle and Chaabi music and Nuba (Andalusian classical music).  The name can cause confusion, as “mandole” is a French word for mandola, the instrument from which the Algerian mandole developed. The Algerian mandole is not however a mandola, but a mando-cello sized instrument and has also been called a mandoluth.