The Lost Dhow: A Discovery from the Maritime Silk Route

by Simon Worrall

In 1998 fishermen discovered a remarkable wreck of a 9th-century Arab merchant ship just off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia. The sunken ship's amazing cargo included silver ingots, bronze mirrors, gold and silver vessels, and 60,000 glazed ceramics. As the oldest Arab ship ever found in Asian waters, the wreck is one of the most important archaeological finds of the late 20th century, is the earliest datable shipwreck in Southeast Asia, and confirms the existence of a direct maritime trade route between East and West, stretching from the Arabian Gulf to the ports of China.



The Lost Dhow, a companion book to an exhibition hosted by Toronto's Aga Khan Museum in the winter of 2014–15, combines art, history, and marine archaeology in a dramatic narrative of the fabled Tang dynasty and its relationship with the Arab world.

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

The author of two highly acclaimed books, THE POET AND THE MURDERER (Dutton & Plume/Penguin Putnam USA, 2002, which William Styron called, “A gripping tale, done with great style and elegance…” and the novelized true story of his mother in World War II, THE VERY WHITE OF LOVE (HarperCollins, 2018), referred to by The Sunday Mirror as “A powerful and tender tale of love and war,” Worrall is a natural storyteller.
Simon was born in Wellington, England in 1951 and spent his childhood in Eritrea, Paris and Singapore. He speaks four languages, including French. He is a regular contributor to National Geographic, and has written for publications all over the world, including the Smithsonian, The London Times and Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian, Harper’s, The New Yorker, Conde Nast Traveler and the New Statesman.