The šargija (Serbo-Croatian: šargija, шаргија; Albanian: sharki or sharkia), anglicized as shargia, is a plucked, fretted long necked lute used in the folk music of various Balkan countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

[2] More recently, an American researcher, Richard March, concluded that the tambura arrived in the Balkans with Turkish people in the 1500s.

It was adopted by people living in the Balkans, including "urban Muslim Slavs" and "Bosnia Christians."

The sharki is used by the Gheg Albanians in northern Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and parts of Montenegro and North Macedonia.

The pattern that the frets are set up to play depends on the tonal system used by the musical tradition a musician participate in.