SA'ID IBN SULTAN

in full Sa'id Ibn Sultan Ibn Ahmad Ibn Sa'id Al-busa 'idi, also called Sa'id Imam, or Sa'id Sayyid born 1791, Oman died Oct. 19, 1856, at sea ruler of Muscat and Oman and of Zanzibar (180656), who made Zanzibar the principal power in East Africa and the commercial capital of the western Indian Ocean. Additional reading J.M. Gray, History of Zanzibar, from the Middle Ages to 1856 (1962), a detailed account of Sa'id's reign in Zanzibar; for the earlier part of his reign, it is superseded by J.B. Kelly, Britain and the Persian Gulf, 17951880 (1968), based on a most exhaustive study of the available archives. E. Said-Ruete (the married name of Sa'id's daughter Salamah), Memoirs of an Arabian Princess (Eng. trans. 1888), gives an intimate portrait of his court and is one of the very few descriptions of a harem written by a woman.