A qanbūs (Arabic: قنبوس) is a short-necked lute that originated in Yemen[1] and spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula.

In Muslim Southeast Asia (especially Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei), called the gambus, it sparked a whole musical genre of its own.

[5] The Yemeni lute has 7 strings in four courses, tuned low note to high C DD GG CC.

In the Comoros islands, a related instrument called the Gambusi is played, which is built in the same way but often has a flat-shaped pegbox, rather than the sickle-shape, and sometimes has a differently shaped soundbox.

[7][8][9] Several structural nuances exist between the original design (Anjouan, Mwali) and the later avatars in Mayotte.

[9] The corrupted pronunciations Gaboussi, Gabusi, or Gaboussa are also found in Mayotte, and obviously preaches for a joined etymology with the Kabosy chordophone in N-W Madagascar.

[11] Some modern luthiers in Indonesia and other countries have begun to make hybrid instruments, combining the gambus or dambus (?)

with other instruments, such as the ud (Sabah), the Hawaiian ukulele (Flores) or the bluegrass mandoline (Lombok)[9][12][13] The corrupted pronunciation dambus is met in Bangka Belitung Islands[14] and also in a limited area from Sukamara Regency and Pangkalan Bun (Central Kalimantan).

[15] Elsewhere in Indonesia, some other well known corruptions are Gambusu and Gambusi, respectively observed in Sulawesi and Gorontalo[16]..In Lombok, the mandoline-shaped gambus - actually a vague, fretless copy of Gibson's A-type bluegrass mandoline - is also locally named Manolin [17] which used to accompany Kemidi Rudat plays or Kecimol entertainment.