Dhow
A Dhow is a traditional wooden sailing vessel, characteristically rigged with one or more lateen (triangular) sails, that has plied the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean for well over a thousand years. Dhows carried the historic trade in dates, spices, textiles, timber and goods between Arabia, East Africa, India and beyond, riding the seasonal monsoon winds.
Though largely superseded by modern ships, dhows remain in use — many now motorised — for regional coastal and cross-Gulf trade, fishing, and increasingly tourism and heritage, and they are an enduring cultural symbol of the UAE, Oman, the wider Gulf and the western Indian Ocean. Wooden-dhow building survives as a craft in places like the Gulf and the Indian coast. The dhow is a distinctive traditional vessel type of deep relevance to the maritime heritage and regional trade of the Middle East and South Asia.
The dhow carried the monsoon trade that connected Arabia, East Africa and India for centuries, and remains a living symbol of Gulf and Indian Ocean maritime heritage — still used for regional trade, fishing and tourism. It is a vessel type of real cultural and regional significance across the markets of the Middle East and South Asia.
What is a dhow rigged with?
Traditionally one or more lateen (triangular) sails, though many working dhows are now motorised.
Where were dhows used?
Across the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, carrying trade between Arabia, East Africa and India on the monsoon winds.