Ghurab

[1] For their war fleet, the Malays prefer to use shallow draught, oared longships similar to the galley, such as lancaran, penjajap, and kelulus.

[note 1] This is very different from the Javanese who prefer long-range, deep-draught round ships such as jong and malangbang.

The reason for this difference is that the Malays operated their ships in riverine water, sheltered straits zone, and archipelagic environment, while the Javanese are often active in the open and high sea.

After contact with Iberian people, both the Javanese and Malay fleets began to use the ghurab and ghali more frequently.

The ghurab was said to be a ship of Majapahit empire, used to carry a princess named Radin Galoh Gemerenchang to marry a Pasai nobleman.

[15]: 258 Until the early 16th century, the main merchant and warship of the Javanese was the jong, but since the mid-16th century the maritime forces of the archipelago began to use new types of agile naval vessels that could be equipped with larger cannons: In various attacks on Portuguese Malacca after the defeat of Pati Unus, they no longer used jong but used lancaran, ghurab, and ghali.

[16]: 212  Pigafetta's Italian-Malay vocabulary of 1521 (published 1524) mentioned Malay gurap as a galley (a la galia).

The state ghurab (ghorab istana) of Aceh, Daya, and Pedir was said to carry 10 meriam, 50 lela, and 120 cecorong (excluding the istinggar).

[19] In 1624, the war fleet of the Mataram Sultanate numbered 2000 vessels consisting of gurab and small perahu.

[22]: 363 Genizah letters mention cargo ghurābs that sailed from the Maghrib, Sicily, and on the Nile, carrying carob and flax.