String Lute / Spike Lute / Spike Fiddle

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3/30 UPDATE - I have cancer. I'd like to get rare, unique, items like this to a decent home. Now is the time to make offers, before I shut down the store. I'm dying.

This is approx. 25" long, 4 1/2" tall at tallest point, and 6 3/4" wide by the tuning handles; the hollow part is approx. 5 1/2" wide. 

I know little about such items; this came from an estate of a nice collection of vintage instruments - anything they can't figure out they just sold locally, like this.  I looked up various instruments, and found a photo of an almost identical item held by a museum in Turkmenistan, dated 1800s, and featured in a book produced by the government, thus:

O. Annanepesov
TURKMEN PEOPLE
IN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
YOUR LOST EARTH
HISTORY
A textbook for high schools
Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan
presented by
Turkmen State Publishing Service
Ashgabat - 2012

The post office won't take letters from out of the country. Email unanswered. I found a phone number for the author; whomever answered didn't want to talk, seemed afraid to talk to foreigner and hung up. The metal inside this is quite aged. I think the metal by the knobs is a newer repair. This item has been used a lot, and has some age; the 2 strings are a solid wire; the other one is 2 stranded. The metal piece that runs through the middle is crude, and very worn, esp the "spike" end that sticks out.

I do not have the bow.

Whatever this is, it is. I have inquired of more places to further ID this. I doubt it is worth what I listed it for - and hope for some good advice.

Kamanache, spike fiddle - a similar item I found in a museum, however clearly not the same item.

The ghijak (also spelled ghidjak, ghichak, gidzhak, gijak, g'ijjak,,[1] or ghijek (Uighur: غىجەك, ғиҗәк, romanized: ghijek, or occasionally Uighur: غىرجەك, ғирҗәк, romanized: ghirjek; Chinese: 艾捷克 aijieke or 吉孜哈克 jizihake; Russian: Гиджак), is a group of related spike fiddles, used by Afghans, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, Tajiks, Turkmens, Qaraqalpaks and in the Xinjiang province of western China. Despite the similarity of the name, it is more closely related to the Persian kamancheh than the ghaychak.