Dhow

The dhow is a lateen-rigged wooden trading vessel of the western Indian Ocean, built in Arabia, East Africa, and the Gulf, with a long history of sewn-plank and later nailed construction. Dhows carried dates, mangrove poles, and goods on the monsoon trade between the Gulf, India, and the Swahili coast for over a millennium; the ninth-century Belitung wreck was an Arab dhow. The term covers many regional types such as the baghlah and sambuk. Surviving dhows sustain coastal trade and heritage in Oman, the UAE, and Zanzibar.