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Saz (from the Persian ساز, meaning a kit or set) is a plucked string instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia.

• The term Saz refers to  a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes  used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Azeri music, Kurdish music, Persian music, Assyrian music, and in parts of Syria, Iraq and the Balkan countries.
• The term bağlama in Turkish (from bağlamak, "to tie", [baːɫaˈma]) is the most common of these, and is often called by the generic name (according to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "the terms ''bağlama'' and ''saz'' are used somewhat interchangeably in Turkey").

Along with the usages, different types and sizes of instruments are used, and today, following are usually recognized:

• Cura ————————— smallest size bağlama.   (⇒ See Category:Cura (instrument))
• Çöğür (Chonguri) ——— short-neck bağlama.    (⇒ See Category:Chonguri)
• Bağlama ——————— the main instrument.   (⇒ See Category:Bağlama)
• Kısa saplı bağlama —— a recently developed type of bağlama.  (⇒ See Category:Kısa saplı bağlama)
• Tanbura (Tanbura saz) – long-neck bağlama.    (⇒ See Category:Tanbura saz)
• Divan sazı ——————– large size bağlama.   (⇒ See Category:Divan sazı)
• Meydan sazı ————— largest-sized bağlama, not used.

For the origin instruments, see Category:Pandura and Category:Komuz, etc.
For the family instruments in Greece, see Category:Bouzoukis – (it includes Baglamas and Tzouras).
For related instruments, see Category:Tanbur, Category:Tambouras (Greece), Category:Buzuq (Lebanon) and (Syria), Category:Tar (lute), Category:Dutâr, and Category:Setar (from Iran).