Oman's Pirate Queen: Sayyida Salme and the Zanzibar Rebellion

When a princess of the Al Bu Said dynasty fled a clove empire and married a German, she became Sayyida Salme — later Emily Ruete — and wrote the first autobiography by an Arab woman. But before she was an author, she was caught in a sibling war for Zanzibar's throne. In 1859, her brother Majid bin Said faced an insurrection from his half-brother Barghash, who was backed by the mercenary and slave trader — and the British navy intervened. This episode tells the story of that rebellion, the brief exile of Barghash, and how the clash between brothers shaped Zanzibar's future under British pressure. We also explore Salme's own rebellion: her love affair with a German merchant, her conversion to Christianity, and her lifelong longing for the island she left behind. This is a story of family, power, and the personal costs of empire in the Indian Ocean world. #SayyidaSalme #EmilyRuete #Zanzibar #Oman #AlBuSaid #MajidBinSaid #BarghashBinSaid #IndianOceanHistory #WomenInHistory #19thCentury #Sultanate #BritishEmpire #SlaveTrade #Autobiography #EastAfrica #SwahiliCoast #History #FexingoHistory #OmanHistory #OmaniEmpire Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo