Al Said
Encyclopedia
Al Said is the ruling dynasty of the Sultanate of Oman, a prominent branch of the Al Busaid clan which has successively ruled the country since 1749.
(Dabá), north of Sohar (which was once the capital of Oman), and came to be known as the Azd of Daba. Like other Qahtani
, the Azd originally hailed from Yemen and migrated north after the destruction of the Marib Dam
. Archeological evidence points to the Sasanid era, around the third or fourth century AD, a period of admittedly weak Persian rule. Their ascendancy to positions of power was in tandem with special relationships established with Persian rulers, who recognized the Azdites as "The kings of the Arabs"citation needed, as seen in a number of inscriptions from the sixth century CE. The head of the Azd confederation was given the title of Buland or Bulanda (Perso-Arabic: بُلند/بُلندى), a Sasanid appellation derived from the Middle Persian
word for eminence and stature, later Arabized in the form of Julandā (Arabic: جُلندَ) to identify the early rulers of Oman.
With the arrival of Islam, the Sasanians in Oman conflicted with the Azd kings, the balance in this conflict swung in favour of the Arabs when they were joined by Muslim forces sent by the Prophet Muhammad from al-Madîna and in the resulting military campaigns the Sasanian citadels were overwhelmed and their forces expelled by 630 AD. With the rise of Islam, the Azd established themselves into a leading force in the ensuing Muslim conquests and later in the realms of the Umayyad Caliphate through the celebrated general Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah (Abu Said) "the Conqueror of the Kharejites" and progenitor of the Al Busaid tribe. Significantly, it is with the Azd that most early sections of pre-Islamic universal chronicles of Arabs begin.
when a Persian fleet attacked the town, he held out for nine months, finally forcing the Persian commander of Nader Shah
's army to come to terms and leave the country altogether within a few years; he was elected imam in 1744, marking the last time Oman was occupied by foreign parties and the beginning of a new unified state. It was also the start of a dynasty that has lasted to the present day consequently making it one of the oldest surviving royal dynasties in Arabia and the first to gain independence. His descendants took the title not of Imam
with its connotations of religious leadership, but that of Sayyid
, a honorific title held by members of the royal family to this day; thus relinquising all pretense of spiritual authority while fostering Muslim scholars and promoting Islamic scholarship.
Trade flourished during Ahmed's Thirty-nine year reign and the Omani navy developed into a formidable force in the Indian Ocean second only to Great Britain and capable of purging Persians forces from the entire region and protecting Ottoman
vessels in the Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean and the Pirate Coast of Trucial Oman. When he died in 1778, the ulema
replaced Ahmed with his son, Said bin Ahmed, who was very religious but shrank from administrative duties and since the tenants of Ibadhism allowed for the division of duties between leaders along religious, administrative and military lines, he removed himself to Rustaq until his death in 1811 and turned over the hands of government to his son Hamad bin Said, who in 1783 changed the capital from Rustaq
in the interior to the coastal city of Muscat
and took the title of Sultan, implying purely coercive power. He was a capable leader for eight years, who facilitated reform policy in the initial stages of the transition but died suddenly in 1792 of smallpox
.
from the Mazrui
clan, fight off the Wahhabi movement spreading from what is now Saudi Arabia and to keep the Qasimi
tribes from the Persian city of Lingeh out of Oman. He found this able ally in Great Britain
, who by this time was a powerful maritime nation with an empire expanding all over the world. In the late 18th century, the second British Empire
was at war with France and knew that the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, was planning to march through Persia and capture Muscat on his way to invade India. In 1798 Britain and Oman agreed a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation.
Sultan bin Ahmed pledged himself to British interests in India, and his territories became out of bounds to the French. He allowed the British East India Company
to establish the first trading station in the Persian Gulf, and a British consul was posted to Muscat. As well as defeating Bonaparte, the British had another motive for the treaty with Oman: they wanted to put pressure on the sultan to end slavery
, which had been declared illegal in England in 1772. At this time, the trade from Africa to Oman was still buoyant and Zanzibar's position as an important trade centre was bolstered further when the supply of ivory from Mozambique to India collapsed because of excessive Portuguese export duties. The traders simply shipped their ivory through Zanzibar instead. Omani warships were in constant skirmishes up and down the gulf, which kept Sultan preoccupied. It was in the course of one of his sorties during an incursion abroad a ship in the Persian Gulf
in 1804 that Sayyid Sultan was shot in the head by a stray bullet, he was buried in Lingeh.
, née Sayyida Salma bint Said in Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, 1886).
The decision to enlist Badr was unfortunately a bad one as he had political aspirations of his own and his infidelities turned the royal house against him. He refused to relinquish his hold of power without a struggle and Said, now sixteen, conspired to have him assassinated. On a pretext to inspect the munitions at Nakhal Fort
, Badr went to Barka
and met Said at Bait al Nu'man castle. There he was killed in a dramatic duel to the death with daggers. A wounded Badr escaped but was finished off by Said's horsemen. Said immediately assumed the government and held it until his death fifty two-years later. He announced to the British that he had assumed power, but they were slow to respond. They acknowledged the young monarch a year later when they realized that their fortunes were best served by courting him. During the reign of the renowned Sultan Said bin Sultan, the progenitor of the House of Al Said, he took Oman to its zenith as a commercial and political maritime power: extending its borders to include Mombasa
and parts of the east African coast, Zanzibar
, Pemba Island, Mafia Island
, Lamu Archipelago, Cape Delgado
(northern border of the current Mozambique),
Bandar-Abbas and the southern Iranian coast, Gwadar
province of Balochistan
(bought by Pakistan in 1958) and, for a short time Bahrain. He was counted among the best leaders as his reputation spread to the crown heads of Europe and became known as Said the great. Few Arab leaders of any time were as well known and respected as Sayyid Said. Trade flourished and Muscat became a key market for the Persian Gulf. The celebrated explorer Richard Francis Burton
called him "as shrewd, liberal and enlightened a prince as Arabia has ever produced," and an Italian physician who served him for a time said: "His constant love of justice, and distinguished clemency, the effects of which are felt, not only by his own subjects, but even by his domestic slaves."
In 1832, he made the island of Zanzibar his second capital and set about establishing what is present-day Stone Town
. A merchant prince and capable warrior, he spent much of his time at sea depending on mercantile and maritime resources for his power in both Oman and Zanzibar. Recognizing the suitability of Zanzibar climate and soil, he initiated large scale cultivation of cloves (an essential meat preservative in Europe prior to the advent of refrigeration) and soon after sought slaves as cheap labor to plant and harvest the biennial
crop. He is also noted for revitalizing the production of rice and sugar cane as well as the export of ivory
and gum copal
. Such was his enterprise and commercial skill that it could probably be said that he established the first International market on the Island of Zanzibar; subsequently many countries signed commercial treaties and opened Consulates. He even introduced a copper coinage to amplify the existing silver coinage of Maria Theresa thaler
s and Spanish dollars.
. The visit of Al-Sultanah lasted nearly four months, in which time the emissary, Ahmed Bin Na'aman (whose portrait can still be seen in the Oman and Zanzibar display of the Peabody Museum in Massachusetts) and his officers were entertained by state and city dignitaries. They received resolutions passed by official bodies, were given tours of New York City and saw sections which would, a few decades later, become colonies of Arabic speaking immigrants. Among Bin Na'aman's hosts was Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt
in whose home he met Governor William H. Seward
and Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson
. The visit of Ahmed Bin Na'aman to America was a happy one, and when he prepared to leave, the United States completely repaired Al-Sultanah and presented him with gifts for his Sultan.
in November 1854, an order came from Said in Muscat appointing another son, the 20-year-old Majid, as governor.
In September 1856, Said sailed for Zanzibar on his ship Kitorie in the company of his son nineteen year old son, Barghash bin Said. He began to suffer severe pains from an old battle wound in his thigh followed by an attack of dysentery
. He died on board the ship on 19 October 1856 at the age of sixty-five.
and the fort in Zanzibar town, but he was unable to muster enough supporters and his attempt was thwarted.
On 28 October 1856, Majid proclaimed himself Sultan of Zanzibar. A ship was sent to Oman with the news, but Said's elder son Thuwaini, who was appointed heir apparent on the 23rd July 1844 and had long acted as his father's Governor in Muscat and commander-in-chief of the Saidi forces refused to acknowledge Majid and immediately tried to regain Zanzibar by force of arms. As a direct result of this struggle, the government of British India, concerned with the stability in the area, acted as arbitrator in the dispute. The Governor-General of British India, Lord Canning ruled in his arbitration that the empire was to be divided into two separate Sultanates: The Sultanate of Zanzibar with its dependencies to Majid bin Said, Said's former Governor of the East African dominions, and The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman to Thuwaini bin Said. On the 10th of March 1862, The Zanzibar Guarantee Treaty was signed in Paris by Britain and France, whereby both parties agreed to respect the independence of the Sultan of Oman and the Sultan of Zanzibar. Recognizing the economic loss caused to Oman by the severance of the Zanzibar connection, Thuwaini insisted Majid pay 40,000 Maria Theresa thalers annually as compensation but the payment fell into arrears and ceased a year later.
of 1964 led by the island's black African citizens, saw the overthrow of the last Sultan of Zanzibar, Jamshid bin Abdullah. Zanzibar became a Marxist Republic overnight, the clove industry was nationalised and the Sultan's Hospital was consequently renamed the Vladmir Illych Lenin Hospital (now known by the politically neutral name of the Coconut Palm Infirmary). Jamshid and his family fled to Oman in 1964 then settled into exile in a modest home in Portsmouth
, England. He was pardoned by Zanzibar President Salmin Amour
on the 46th anniversary of the 1964 uprising and declared free to return as an ordinary Zanzibari citizen, but remains barred from settling in Oman.
In 1868, the Royal House
in Oman took a brief turn through a distant line of the family, when Imam Azzan bin Qais started rebelling against Thuwaini bin Said with the help and encouragement of the Wahhabis in 1864. Azzan eventually managed to expel Thuwaini's eldest son Salim bin Thuwaini, seizing power in October 1868. Under Azzan, the country briefly reverted to being an imamate rather than a sultanate and although he was accepted by a significant portion of the Hinawai tribe, his subsequent attempts to subdue the interior alienated the Ghafiri tribe who in 1870 instigated a general revolt led by Salim's uncle Sayyid Turki bin Said. Turki contrived to keep the office within the immediate family and re-establish his father's sultanate; having secured the political and financial backing of the British, he managed to execute Azzan, bringing the revolt to a successful end in January 1871. Succession continues through his great-grandson, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the present ruler of Oman and the incarnation of the country's renaissance, who has presided over an era of socio-economic modernization since 1970.
Origins
The tribe traces its roots to a band of Al Azd, (through patrilineal ancestor al-'Atik b. al-Asad b. Imran) that settled in DibbaDibba
Dibba , sometimes spelled Diba or Daba, is a coastal region at the northeastern tip of the United Arab Emirates/Oman peninsula on the Gulf of Oman...
(Dabá), north of Sohar (which was once the capital of Oman), and came to be known as the Azd of Daba. Like other Qahtani
Qahtanite
The terms Qahtanite and Qahtani refer to Semitic peoples either originating in, or claiming genealogical descent from the southern extent of the Arabian Peninsula, especially from Yemen....
, the Azd originally hailed from Yemen and migrated north after the destruction of the Marib Dam
Marib Dam
The Marib or Ma'rib or Ma'arib Dam blocks the Wadi Adhanah in the valley of Dhana in the Balaq Hills, Yemen. The current dam is close to the ruins of the Great Dam of Marib, dating from around the eighth century BC...
. Archeological evidence points to the Sasanid era, around the third or fourth century AD, a period of admittedly weak Persian rule. Their ascendancy to positions of power was in tandem with special relationships established with Persian rulers, who recognized the Azdites as "The kings of the Arabs"citation needed, as seen in a number of inscriptions from the sixth century CE. The head of the Azd confederation was given the title of Buland or Bulanda (Perso-Arabic: بُلند/بُلندى), a Sasanid appellation derived from the Middle Persian
Middle Persian
Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...
word for eminence and stature, later Arabized in the form of Julandā (Arabic: جُلندَ) to identify the early rulers of Oman.
With the arrival of Islam, the Sasanians in Oman conflicted with the Azd kings, the balance in this conflict swung in favour of the Arabs when they were joined by Muslim forces sent by the Prophet Muhammad from al-Madîna and in the resulting military campaigns the Sasanian citadels were overwhelmed and their forces expelled by 630 AD. With the rise of Islam, the Azd established themselves into a leading force in the ensuing Muslim conquests and later in the realms of the Umayyad Caliphate through the celebrated general Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah (Abu Said) "the Conqueror of the Kharejites" and progenitor of the Al Busaid tribe. Significantly, it is with the Azd that most early sections of pre-Islamic universal chronicles of Arabs begin.
Rise to power
Ahmad bin Said Al Busaidi, a shrewd military tactician was the governor of SoharSohar
Sohar is the most developed city in Sultanate of Oman outside the capital Muscat. It is about 200 kilometers north of Muscat. Sohar was an ancient capital of Oman and many believe it to be the birthplace of Sinbad the Sailor...
when a Persian fleet attacked the town, he held out for nine months, finally forcing the Persian commander of Nader Shah
Nader Shah
Nāder Shāh Afshār ruled as Shah of Iran and was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as the Napoleon of Persia or the Second Alexander...
's army to come to terms and leave the country altogether within a few years; he was elected imam in 1744, marking the last time Oman was occupied by foreign parties and the beginning of a new unified state. It was also the start of a dynasty that has lasted to the present day consequently making it one of the oldest surviving royal dynasties in Arabia and the first to gain independence. His descendants took the title not of Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
with its connotations of religious leadership, but that of Sayyid
Sayyid
Sayyid is an honorific title, it denotes males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husain ibn Ali, sons of the prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida,...
, a honorific title held by members of the royal family to this day; thus relinquising all pretense of spiritual authority while fostering Muslim scholars and promoting Islamic scholarship.
Trade flourished during Ahmed's Thirty-nine year reign and the Omani navy developed into a formidable force in the Indian Ocean second only to Great Britain and capable of purging Persians forces from the entire region and protecting Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
vessels in the Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean and the Pirate Coast of Trucial Oman. When he died in 1778, the ulema
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
replaced Ahmed with his son, Said bin Ahmed, who was very religious but shrank from administrative duties and since the tenants of Ibadhism allowed for the division of duties between leaders along religious, administrative and military lines, he removed himself to Rustaq until his death in 1811 and turned over the hands of government to his son Hamad bin Said, who in 1783 changed the capital from Rustaq
Rustaq
Rustaq is a town and wilayah in the Al Batinah Region of northern Oman. The city is located at .The wilayah of Rustaq is in the Western Hajar, in the south of the Batinah. Rustaq was once the capital of Oman, during the era of Imam Nasir bin Murshid al Ya'arubi...
in the interior to the coastal city of Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
and took the title of Sultan, implying purely coercive power. He was a capable leader for eight years, who facilitated reform policy in the initial stages of the transition but died suddenly in 1792 of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
.
Alliance with the British Empire
Sultan bin Ahmed assumed control of the government after the death of his nephew and strengthened the already powerful fleet by adding numerous gunships and sleek cargo vessels, he also needed a strong ally to help him regain control of MombasaMombasa
Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....
from the Mazrui
Mazrui
The Mazrui were an Omani/Swahili clan that reigned over some areas of East Africa, especially Kenya, from the 18th to the 20th century. In the 18th century they governed Mombasa and other coastal places and opposed the Al Bu Sa'id Omani dynasty that ruled over Zanzibar...
clan, fight off the Wahhabi movement spreading from what is now Saudi Arabia and to keep the Qasimi
Al Qasimi
Al Qasimi is a deeply-rooted Adnani Arabian tribe known for its rich history, bravery and conquests. The Al Qasimi dynasty are from the Ashraaf; they trace their ancesty from Imam Ali. Today, two branches of the Al Qasimi tribe rule the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab...
tribes from the Persian city of Lingeh out of Oman. He found this able ally in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, who by this time was a powerful maritime nation with an empire expanding all over the world. In the late 18th century, the second British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
was at war with France and knew that the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, was planning to march through Persia and capture Muscat on his way to invade India. In 1798 Britain and Oman agreed a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation.
Sultan bin Ahmed pledged himself to British interests in India, and his territories became out of bounds to the French. He allowed the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
to establish the first trading station in the Persian Gulf, and a British consul was posted to Muscat. As well as defeating Bonaparte, the British had another motive for the treaty with Oman: they wanted to put pressure on the sultan to end slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, which had been declared illegal in England in 1772. At this time, the trade from Africa to Oman was still buoyant and Zanzibar's position as an important trade centre was bolstered further when the supply of ivory from Mozambique to India collapsed because of excessive Portuguese export duties. The traders simply shipped their ivory through Zanzibar instead. Omani warships were in constant skirmishes up and down the gulf, which kept Sultan preoccupied. It was in the course of one of his sorties during an incursion abroad a ship in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
in 1804 that Sayyid Sultan was shot in the head by a stray bullet, he was buried in Lingeh.
Said bin Sultan (Said the Great)
The death of Sultan bin Ahmed sent the country into a state of shock, Inter-family rivalries, dissident tribes, and outside agitators who all conspired to make the role of supreme commander a speculative proposition at best. Sultan's eldest son Said was merely thirteen, too young to take the reins of his country, "so the elders called upon another nephew Badr bin Saif to act as regent in the boy's behalf until he came of age." Emily RueteEmily Ruete
Emily Ruete was born in Zanzibar as Sayyida Salme, Princess of Zanzibar and Oman. She was a daughter of Sayyid Said bin Sultan Al-Busaid, Sultan of Zanzibar and Oman...
, née Sayyida Salma bint Said in Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, 1886).
The decision to enlist Badr was unfortunately a bad one as he had political aspirations of his own and his infidelities turned the royal house against him. He refused to relinquish his hold of power without a struggle and Said, now sixteen, conspired to have him assassinated. On a pretext to inspect the munitions at Nakhal Fort
Nakhal Fort
Nakhal Fort is a large fort in the Middle East in the Al Batinah Region of the sultanate state of Oman....
, Badr went to Barka
Barka
Barka is a coastal town in the region Al Bāţinah, in northern Oman. It is located at about . The town is emerging as a tourist resort. It has an interesting fort....
and met Said at Bait al Nu'man castle. There he was killed in a dramatic duel to the death with daggers. A wounded Badr escaped but was finished off by Said's horsemen. Said immediately assumed the government and held it until his death fifty two-years later. He announced to the British that he had assumed power, but they were slow to respond. They acknowledged the young monarch a year later when they realized that their fortunes were best served by courting him. During the reign of the renowned Sultan Said bin Sultan, the progenitor of the House of Al Said, he took Oman to its zenith as a commercial and political maritime power: extending its borders to include Mombasa
Mombasa
Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....
and parts of the east African coast, Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
, Pemba Island, Mafia Island
Mafia Island
Mafia Island is part of the Tanzanian Spice Islands, together with Unguja and Pemba. As one of the six districts of the Pwani Region, Mafia Island is governed from the mainland, not from the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, of which it has never been considered to be a part.According to the...
, Lamu Archipelago, Cape Delgado
Cape Delgado
Cape Delgado, Portuguese Cabo Delgado , is a coastal promontory on the border of Mozambique and Tanzania, and is the northernmost point in Mozambique....
(northern border of the current Mozambique),
Bandar-Abbas and the southern Iranian coast, Gwadar
Gwadar
Gwadar also known as Godar is a developing port city on the southwestern Arabian Sea coast of Pakistan. It is the district headquarters of Gwadar District in Balochistan province and has a population of approximately 50,000.Gwadar is strategically located at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the...
province of Balochistan
Balochistan
Balochistan or Baluchistan is a region which covers parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. It can also refer to one of several modern and historical territories within that region:...
(bought by Pakistan in 1958) and, for a short time Bahrain. He was counted among the best leaders as his reputation spread to the crown heads of Europe and became known as Said the great. Few Arab leaders of any time were as well known and respected as Sayyid Said. Trade flourished and Muscat became a key market for the Persian Gulf. The celebrated explorer Richard Francis Burton
Richard Francis Burton
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas as well as his...
called him "as shrewd, liberal and enlightened a prince as Arabia has ever produced," and an Italian physician who served him for a time said: "His constant love of justice, and distinguished clemency, the effects of which are felt, not only by his own subjects, but even by his domestic slaves."
In 1832, he made the island of Zanzibar his second capital and set about establishing what is present-day Stone Town
Stone Town
Stone Town also known as Mji Mkongwe is the old part of Zanzibar City, the main city of Zanzibar, in Tanzania, as opposed to Ng'ambo . It is located on the western coast of Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar Archipelago...
. A merchant prince and capable warrior, he spent much of his time at sea depending on mercantile and maritime resources for his power in both Oman and Zanzibar. Recognizing the suitability of Zanzibar climate and soil, he initiated large scale cultivation of cloves (an essential meat preservative in Europe prior to the advent of refrigeration) and soon after sought slaves as cheap labor to plant and harvest the biennial
Biennial plant
A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots , then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. Usually the stem remains very short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming...
crop. He is also noted for revitalizing the production of rice and sugar cane as well as the export of ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
and gum copal
Gum copal
Gum copal is a resin produced by the forest tree...
. Such was his enterprise and commercial skill that it could probably be said that he established the first International market on the Island of Zanzibar; subsequently many countries signed commercial treaties and opened Consulates. He even introduced a copper coinage to amplify the existing silver coinage of Maria Theresa thaler
Maria Theresa thaler
The Maria Theresa thaler is a silver bullion-coin that has been used in world trade continuously. Maria Theresa Thalers were first minted in 1741, using the then Reichsthaler standard of 9 thalers to the Vienna mark. In 1750 the thaler was debased to 10 thalers to the Vienna Mark...
s and Spanish dollars.
Treaty with the United States
On September 21, 1833 a historical treaty of friendship and trade was signed with the United States of America. It was the second treaty formulated by the U.S. and an Arab state (Morocco being the first in 1820). The United States and Oman both stood to benefit as the U.S. unlike Britain and France had no territorial ambitions abroad and was solely interested in commerce. On April 13, 1840, the ship Al-Sultanah docked at New York making it the first Arab envoy to ever visit the New World. Her crew of fifty six Arab sailors caused a flurry of excitement among the three hundred thousand residents of that thriving metropolis. Al-Sultanah carried ivory, Persian rugs, spices, coffee and dates, as well as lavish gifts for President Martin Van BurenMartin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
. The visit of Al-Sultanah lasted nearly four months, in which time the emissary, Ahmed Bin Na'aman (whose portrait can still be seen in the Oman and Zanzibar display of the Peabody Museum in Massachusetts) and his officers were entertained by state and city dignitaries. They received resolutions passed by official bodies, were given tours of New York City and saw sections which would, a few decades later, become colonies of Arabic speaking immigrants. Among Bin Na'aman's hosts was Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history...
in whose home he met Governor William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
and Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson
Richard Mentor Johnson
Richard Mentor Johnson was the ninth Vice President of the United States, serving in the administration of Martin Van Buren . He was the only vice-president ever elected by the United States Senate under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. Johnson also represented Kentucky in the U.S...
. The visit of Ahmed Bin Na'aman to America was a happy one, and when he prepared to leave, the United States completely repaired Al-Sultanah and presented him with gifts for his Sultan.
End of Said's Reign
Said made periodic visits to Muscat, leaving his eldest son Khaled as Governor of Zanzibar in his absence. Khalid had a predilection for French goods and named his principal country estate Marseilles, after the French Mediterranean port. When Khalid died of tuberculosisTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in November 1854, an order came from Said in Muscat appointing another son, the 20-year-old Majid, as governor.
In September 1856, Said sailed for Zanzibar on his ship Kitorie in the company of his son nineteen year old son, Barghash bin Said. He began to suffer severe pains from an old battle wound in his thigh followed by an attack of dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
. He died on board the ship on 19 October 1856 at the age of sixty-five.
Division of Zanzibar and Oman
Schisms within the ruling family were apparent after the death of Sultan Said bin Sultan, as his sons who had their own rivalries and ambitions for controlling the throne quarreled over the empire. Realizing that Majid would be unaware of their father’s death, Bargash came ashore secretly and tried to take control of the palace at MtoniMtoni
Mtoni may refer to:*Mtoni, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania*Mtoni, Zanzibar, Tanzania...
and the fort in Zanzibar town, but he was unable to muster enough supporters and his attempt was thwarted.
On 28 October 1856, Majid proclaimed himself Sultan of Zanzibar. A ship was sent to Oman with the news, but Said's elder son Thuwaini, who was appointed heir apparent on the 23rd July 1844 and had long acted as his father's Governor in Muscat and commander-in-chief of the Saidi forces refused to acknowledge Majid and immediately tried to regain Zanzibar by force of arms. As a direct result of this struggle, the government of British India, concerned with the stability in the area, acted as arbitrator in the dispute. The Governor-General of British India, Lord Canning ruled in his arbitration that the empire was to be divided into two separate Sultanates: The Sultanate of Zanzibar with its dependencies to Majid bin Said, Said's former Governor of the East African dominions, and The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman to Thuwaini bin Said. On the 10th of March 1862, The Zanzibar Guarantee Treaty was signed in Paris by Britain and France, whereby both parties agreed to respect the independence of the Sultan of Oman and the Sultan of Zanzibar. Recognizing the economic loss caused to Oman by the severance of the Zanzibar connection, Thuwaini insisted Majid pay 40,000 Maria Theresa thalers annually as compensation but the payment fell into arrears and ceased a year later.
Recent history
State rule shifted consecutively in Zanzibar from the hands of Majid who had no heirs to three of his brothers until the Zanzibar revolutionZanzibar Revolution
The Zanzibar Revolution by local African revolutionaries in 1964 overthrew the Sultan of Zanzibar and his mainly Arab government. An ethnically diverse state consisting of a number of islands off the east coast of Tanganyika, Zanzibar had been granted independence by Britain in 1963...
of 1964 led by the island's black African citizens, saw the overthrow of the last Sultan of Zanzibar, Jamshid bin Abdullah. Zanzibar became a Marxist Republic overnight, the clove industry was nationalised and the Sultan's Hospital was consequently renamed the Vladmir Illych Lenin Hospital (now known by the politically neutral name of the Coconut Palm Infirmary). Jamshid and his family fled to Oman in 1964 then settled into exile in a modest home in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, England. He was pardoned by Zanzibar President Salmin Amour
Salmin Amour
Salmin Amour is a Tanzanian politician who was President of Zanzibar from 25 October 1990 to 8 November 2000. He was elected in 1990 as the sole candidate and received 98% of the votes. In Tanzania's first multi-party elections in 1995, Amour was accused of rigging the Zanzibari Presidential...
on the 46th anniversary of the 1964 uprising and declared free to return as an ordinary Zanzibari citizen, but remains barred from settling in Oman.
In 1868, the Royal House
Royal House
A royal house or royal dynasty consists of at least one, but usually more monarchs who are related to one another, as well as their non-reigning descendants and spouses. Monarchs of the same realm who are not related to one another are usually deemed to belong to different houses, and each house is...
in Oman took a brief turn through a distant line of the family, when Imam Azzan bin Qais started rebelling against Thuwaini bin Said with the help and encouragement of the Wahhabis in 1864. Azzan eventually managed to expel Thuwaini's eldest son Salim bin Thuwaini, seizing power in October 1868. Under Azzan, the country briefly reverted to being an imamate rather than a sultanate and although he was accepted by a significant portion of the Hinawai tribe, his subsequent attempts to subdue the interior alienated the Ghafiri tribe who in 1870 instigated a general revolt led by Salim's uncle Sayyid Turki bin Said. Turki contrived to keep the office within the immediate family and re-establish his father's sultanate; having secured the political and financial backing of the British, he managed to execute Azzan, bringing the revolt to a successful end in January 1871. Succession continues through his great-grandson, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the present ruler of Oman and the incarnation of the country's renaissance, who has presided over an era of socio-economic modernization since 1970.
Sultans of Oman
- 1783–1792 Sultan Hamad bin Said
- 1792–1804 Sultan Sultan bin Ahmed
- 1805–1806 Sultan Badr bin Seif
- 1806–1856 Sultan Said bin Sultan
- 1856–1866 Sultan Thuwaini bin Said
- 1866–1868 Sultan Salim bin Thuwaini
- 1868–1871 Imam Azzan bin Qais
- 1871–1888 Sultan Turki bin Said
- 1888–1913 Sultan Faisal bin TurkiFaisal bin Turki, Sultan of Muscat and OmanSayyid Faisal bin Turki, GCIE , historic spelling Fessul bin Turkee, ruled as Sultan of Muscat and Oman from June 4, 1888 - October 15, 1913. He succeeded his father Turki bin Said as Sultan...
- 1913–1932 Sultan Taimur bin Faisal
- 1932–1970 Sultan Said bin TaimurSaid bin TaimurSaid bin Taimur was the sultan of Muscat and Oman from 10 February 1932 until his overthrow on 23 July 1970. His second wife was Mazoon al-Mashani...
- 1970–present Sultan Qaboos bin Said
- 1932–1970 Sultan Said bin Taimur
- 1913–1932 Sultan Taimur bin Faisal
- 1888–1913 Sultan Faisal bin Turki
- 1871–1888 Sultan Turki bin Said
- 1868–1871 Imam Azzan bin Qais
- 1866–1868 Sultan Salim bin Thuwaini
- 1856–1866 Sultan Thuwaini bin Said
- 1806–1856 Sultan Said bin Sultan
- 1805–1806 Sultan Badr bin Seif
- 1792–1804 Sultan Sultan bin Ahmed
Sultans of Zanzibar
- 1856–1870 Sultan Majid bin Said
- 1870–1888 Sultan Barghash bin Said
- 1888–1890 Sultan Khalifa bin Said
- 1890–1893 Sultan Ali bin Said
- 1893–1896 Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini
- 26 Aug 1896 Sultan Khalid bin Bargash
- 1896–1902 Sultan Hamud bin Mohammed
- 1902–1911 Sultan Ali bin Hamud
- 1911–1960 Sultan Khalifa bin Harub
- 1960–1963 Sultan Abdullah bin Khalifa
- 1963–1964 Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah
- 1960–1963 Sultan Abdullah bin Khalifa
- 1911–1960 Sultan Khalifa bin Harub
- 1902–1911 Sultan Ali bin Hamud
- 1896–1902 Sultan Hamud bin Mohammed
- 26 Aug 1896 Sultan Khalid bin Bargash
- 1893–1896 Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini
- 1890–1893 Sultan Ali bin Said
- 1888–1890 Sultan Khalifa bin Said
- 1870–1888 Sultan Barghash bin Said