Although there is a great discrepancy concerning the history of many instruments, the first manuscript which deals with the musical instruments including kamancheh - under the title of "rabab" - is Almusiqi-Alkabir by Farabi, the great Persian philosopher and scientist of 9th and 10th centuries. A.D.
Farabi did not mention using a bow for rabab, and this the reason why so many scholars considered it a non-bowed instrument. Nevertheless his description of the instrument is totally concordant with kamancheh that he classified it into 3 groups: Raba-e Sha'er, Rabab-e Mesri and Rabab-e Torki.
Four centuries later, Abdulqader Maraqe'i in his two major books gives comprehensive details of the instrument.
Ruhollah Khaleqi believed that kamancheh is one of the oldest instruments in Eastern hemisphere. Albert Lavignac in La musique et les musiciens pointed out that the oldest bowed instrument is ravanstron, in fact a Chinese instrument, Khaleqi also traces back the origin of kamancheh to Qezh or Qezhak belonging to the pre-Islamic culture of Iran.
In the great hall of Chehelsotun (Safavid dynasty) there is a fresco which shows a musician bowing a kamancheh. This is the oldest document revealing kamancheh and its usual style of playing. During Qajar period musicians added a fourth string to the instrument after getting familiar with violin, an instrument which exerted a forceful influence on kamancheh playing and also on the players. There is also another type of kamancheh used in regional music of Iran. This folk instrument is often with three strings.