arab copied greek instrument. bouzouki is from pandoura

You said bouzoukis have not been around in Greece all that long, this is a mistake. All music analysts who are familiar with Greek music know that bouzouki is is an evolution of the ancient Greek similar instrument called "Pandoura" or "Pandouris" (appeared about the 3rd century BC) This instrument was used even at the Byzantine age with the same name, this is where the Turkish instruments Tanbur an Saz came from. As you correctly mentioned the name bouzouki comes from the Turkish language, but the instrument is ancient Greek - the tzouras is the closest instrument to it - a tzouras or a trichordo bouzouki has not really many differences from the ancient and Byzantine pandoura.
The Greek speakers can have a look at this page: http://img.pathfinder.gr/clubs/files/34662/1.html http://www.rebetiko.gr/books/html/2.asp


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bouzouki