{
 "id": "person/emily-ruete",
 "class": "person",
 "slug": "emily-ruete",
 "label": {
  "ar": "سلمة بنت سعيد (إميلي رويته)",
  "en": "Emily Ruete (Sayyida Salme)",
  "ur": "سلمہ بنت سعید (ایملی روئٹے)"
 },
 "summary": {
  "ar": "سلمة بنت سعيد سلطان (30 أغسطس 1844 في زنجبار – 29 فبراير 1924 في يينا)، المعروفة بعد زواجها باسم إميلي رويته، أميرة زنجبار وعُمان وأصغر أبناء سلطان عُمان سعيد بن سلطان الستة والثلاثين. علّمت نفسها الكتابة سرا في صباها، وشاركت فتاةً في نزاع أخويها ماجد وبرغش على الحكم، ثم عُرفت بحبها للتاجر الألماني رودولف هاينريش رويته ففرّت سنة 1866 على سفينة بريطانية إلى عدن، حيث تعمّدت باسم إميلي وتزوجته سنة 1867. عاشت أرملة فقيرة في ألمانيا بعد وفاة زوجها سنة 1870، وكتبت «مذكرات أميرة عربية» (1886) فكانت أول سيرة ذاتية منشورة لامرأة عربية، وزارَت زنجبار مرتين (1885 و1888)، وعاشت سنوات في يافا وبيروت، وتوفيت في يينا.",
  "en": "Salme bint Said Sultan (30 August 1844 at Zanzibar – 29 February 1924 at Jena), known after her marriage as Emily Ruete, Princess of Zanzibar and Oman and the youngest of the 36 children of Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Oman. She secretly taught herself to write as a girl, took part as a teenager in her brothers Majid's and Barghash's struggle for the throne, then fell in love with the German merchant Rudolph Heinrich Ruete, fled in 1866 on a British ship to Aden, where she was baptized Emily and married him in 1867. Widowed and poor in Germany after her husband's death in 1870, she wrote her Memoirs of an Arabian Princess (1886), the first published autobiography of an Arab woman, revisited Zanzibar twice (1885 and 1888), lived for years in Jaffa and Beirut, and died at Jena.",
  "ur": "سلمہ بنت سعید سلطان (30 اگست 1844ء زنجبار – 29 فروری 1924ء یینا)، جو شادی کے بعد ایملی روئٹے کے نام سے معروف ہوئیں، زنجبار و عمان کی شہزادی اور عمان کے سلطان سعید بن سلطان کے چھتیس بچوں میں سب سے چھوٹی تھیں۔ انہوں نے بچپن میں چھپ کر لکھنا سیکھا، بھائیوں ماجد و برغش کی کشمکش میں حصہ لیا، پھر جرمن تاجر روڈولف ہائنرش روئٹے سے محبت کے سبب 1866ء میں برطانوی جہاز سے عدن فرار ہوئیں، جہاں بپتسمہ لے کر ایملی نام پایا اور 1867ء میں ان سے شادی کی۔ 1870ء میں شوہر کی وفات کے بعد جرمنی میں تنگ دستی میں زندگی گزاری، «ایک عرب شہزادی کی یادداشتیں» (1886ء) لکھیں جو کسی عرب خاتون کی پہلی شائع شدہ آپ بیتی ہے، دو بار زنجبار گئیں، برسوں یافا و بیروت میں رہیں اور یینا میں وفات پائی۔"
 },
 "stub": false,
 "wings": [
  "people"
 ],
 "regions": [],
 "periods": [],
 "tags": [],
 "aliases": [],
 "themes": [],
 "span": {
  "earliest": 1844.6613551270732,
  "latest": 1924.1619608889666
 },
 "display": {
  "start": {
   "edtf": "1844-08-30",
   "hijri": "1260",
   "calendar": "gregorian",
   "precision": "day",
   "status": "historical",
   "derived": true,
   "note": "Born on 30 August 1844 at Zanzibar, daughter of Said bin Sultan and Jilfidan, a Circassian concubine (some accounts say Georgian): the English article and van Donzel's editorial biography agree on the day, the place and the parentage. The Hijri year (1260) is derived by tabular conversion (30 August 1844 falls in Sha'ban 1260).",
   "sources": [
    "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
    "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992"
   ]
  },
  "end": {
   "edtf": "1924-02-29",
   "hijri": "1342",
   "calendar": "gregorian",
   "precision": "day",
   "status": "historical",
   "derived": true,
   "note": "Died at Jena on 29 February 1924, aged 79, of severe pneumonia: the English article; van Donzel's biography likewise gives her death at Jena in 1924. The Hijri year (1342) is derived by tabular conversion (29 February 1924 falls in Rajab 1342). Jena has no place entity in the museum yet, so no died_in relation is written.",
   "sources": [
    "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
    "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992"
   ]
  }
 },
 "data": {
  "names": [
   {
    "value": "سلمة بنت سعيد بن سلطان البوسعيدي",
    "kind": "full"
   },
   {
    "value": "Salme bint Said Sultan",
    "kind": "full"
   },
   {
    "value": "Emily Ruete",
    "kind": "alternate"
   },
   {
    "value": "Sayyida Salme",
    "kind": "alternate"
   }
  ],
  "gender": "female",
  "roles": [
   "writer"
  ],
  "born": {
   "edtf": "1844-08-30",
   "hijri": "1260",
   "calendar": "gregorian",
   "precision": "day",
   "status": "historical",
   "derived": true,
   "note": "Born on 30 August 1844 at Zanzibar, daughter of Said bin Sultan and Jilfidan, a Circassian concubine (some accounts say Georgian): the English article and van Donzel's editorial biography agree on the day, the place and the parentage. The Hijri year (1260) is derived by tabular conversion (30 August 1844 falls in Sha'ban 1260).",
   "sources": [
    "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
    "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992"
   ]
  },
  "died": {
   "edtf": "1924-02-29",
   "hijri": "1342",
   "calendar": "gregorian",
   "precision": "day",
   "status": "historical",
   "derived": true,
   "note": "Died at Jena on 29 February 1924, aged 79, of severe pneumonia: the English article; van Donzel's biography likewise gives her death at Jena in 1924. The Hijri year (1342) is derived by tabular conversion (29 February 1924 falls in Rajab 1342). Jena has no place entity in the museum yet, so no died_in relation is written.",
   "sources": [
    "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
    "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992"
   ]
  },
  "faith": [
   {
    "value": "unknown",
    "basis": "unknown",
    "note": "Birth segment (1844–1867), stated in full under the two-source rule and the doubt rule. She was born and raised a Muslim princess of the Al Bu Said house of Zanzibar: her own article's infobox names her first religion personally as 'Ibadi Islam' (later Roman Catholicism), and her father's personal Ibadi affiliation is documented in his own record. But no second independent source read in this run names Ibadi Islam as Salme's own religion personally — the academic accounts read (van Donzel's biography; Prestholdt's chapter; Topan's chapter) describe her as a born Muslim princess who converted to Christianity, without naming the Ibadi school for her personally — and her father's documented affiliation is family background, which the lane rules say does not count. The birth segment is therefore left unknown, with the single infobox attestation of Ibadi Islam stated here verbatim; if a second independent personal attestation is found, this segment should be revisited.",
    "sources": [
     "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
     "source/britannica-said-ibn-sultan"
    ]
   },
   {
    "value": "christian",
    "basis": "documented",
    "note": "Later segment (from her baptism at Aden in 1867 until her death in 1924), attested of her personally by independent sources. (1) Her article records that at Aden she took Christian instruction and was baptised before her marriage on 30 May 1867, and its infobox gives her later religion as Roman Catholicism. (2) Van Donzel's editorial biography in the Brill edition of her writings states that at Aden she 'was baptized with the Christian name Emily' and there married Rudolph Heinrich Ruete. (3) Prestholdt's academic chapter states that she eloped with a German merchant and converted to Christianity. The generic value christian is recorded because the sources disagree on the denomination (the current infobox says Roman Catholicism; an older form of the article said Protestantism), and no denomination is asserted.",
    "sources": [
     "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
     "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992",
     "source/prestholdt-salme-2014"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "sources": [
   "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
   "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992",
   "source/prestholdt-salme-2014",
   "source/britannica-said-ibn-sultan"
  ],
  "provenance": {
   "layer": "own-research",
   "source": "English Wikipedia 'Emily Ruete', read in full on 25 October 2026; E. J. van Donzel (ed.), An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds (Brill, 1992), editorial biography as given in the publisher's description; Jeremy Prestholdt, 'From Zanzibar to Beirut' (2014), read on 25 October 2026; Encyclopaedia Britannica on her father Said bin Sultan, cited in the birth-segment faith note only. No Wikidata identifier was verified in this run, so none is recorded.",
   "generated_by": "Muse (Muse Spark 1.3)",
   "run": "century-additions-20"
  },
  "status": {
   "review": "published",
   "completeness": 3,
   "generated_by": "Muse (Muse Spark 1.3)"
  }
 },
 "prose": {
  "ar": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "موجز",
     "markdown": "سلمة بنت سعيد سلطان (30 أغسطس 1844 – 29 فبراير 1924)، المعروفة بعد زواجها باسم إميلي رويته، أميرة زنجبار وعُمان وأصغر أبناء [[person/said-bin-sultan|سعيد بن سلطان]] الستة والثلاثين، ومؤلفة «مذكرات أميرة عربية من زنجبار» (1886)، أول سيرة ذاتية منشورة لامرأة عربية. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "النشأة في زنجبار",
     "markdown": "وُلدت سلمة في زنجبار في 30 أغسطس 1844، ابنة للسلطان سعيد وجلفيدان، وهي شركسية كانت من الجواري ثم صارت من نساء السلطان، ونشأت ثنائية اللسان بالعربية والسواحلية في قصور أبيها، أولا في بيت المتوني ثم عند أخيها [[person/majid-bin-said|ماجد بن سعيد]] الذي علّمها ركوب الخيل والرماية. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} علّمت نفسها الكتابة سرا، وهو أمر غير مألوف لنساء مجتمعها آنذاك، فلما توفي والدها سنة 1856 وهي في الثانية عشرة نالت ميراثها، ولما توفيت أمها سنة 1859 ورثت ثلاث مزارع. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "كاتبة حزب برغش",
     "markdown": "حين تنازع أخواها ماجد وبرغش الحكم سنة 1859، مالت سلمة بقلبها إلى ماجد، لكنها صارت بما تعرفه من الكتابة كاتبة سر حزب برغش وهي في الخامسة عشرة، وانتهت الثورة سريعا بمساعدة سفينة حربية إنجليزية ونُفي برغش إلى بومباي سنتين، ثم تصالحت سلمة مع ماجد فبقي برغش ناقما عليها. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "الفرار إلى عدن والزواج",
     "markdown": "في المدينة الحجرية عرفت جارها التاجر الألماني رودولف هاينريش رويته وحملت منه، فلما ظهر حملها فرّت في أغسطس 1866 على متن الفرقاطة البريطانية هايفلاير إلى مستعمرة عدن البريطانية، وهناك تلقّت التعليم المسيحي وتعمّدت قبل زواجها في 30 مايو 1867، وسمّت ابنها الأول هاينريش المولود في عدن في ديسمبر 1866، وقد توفي في فرنسا في الطريق إلى ألمانيا. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "الحياة في أوروبا والترمّل",
     "markdown": "استقر الزوجان في هامبورغ ورُزقا ابنا وابنتين، ثم مات رودولف سنة 1870 في حادث ترام فبقيت أرملة في ظروف مادية صعبة بعد أن رُفضت مطالباتها بالميراث. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} وفي تلك السنوات كتبت مذكراتها بالألمانية، فنُشرت «مذكرات أميرة عربية» سنة 1886 وتُرجمت إلى الإنجليزية سنة 1888، وهي تصوّر حياة زنجبار بين 1850 و1865 من داخل قصر السلطان وأسرته. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} وفي 1993 نشر فان دونزل طبعة موسعة تضم المذكرات و«رسائل إلى الوطن» و«تتمات المذكرات» و«عادات سورية واستعمالاتها». {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "بين عالمين",
     "markdown": "بعد ترمّلها دخلت سلمة في خطط المستشار الألماني بسمارك الاستعمارية، إذ دار حديث عن تنصيب ابنها سلطانا على زنجبار، وزارت زنجبار مرتين سنة 1885 و1888 دون أن تنال ما كانت تأمله من ميراث أو مصالحة كاملة. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} عاشت بين 1889 و1914 في يافا ثم بيروت، ثم عادت إلى أوروبا وتوفيت في يينا في 29 فبراير 1924 عن تسعة وسبعين عاما بالتهاب رئوي شديد. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "دينها",
     "markdown": "تذكر المصادر الأكاديمية أنها اعتنقت المسيحية: يقول فان دونزل في سيرتها المحققة إنها تعمّدت في عدن باسم إميلي المسيحي وتزوجت هناك، ويقول بريستهولت إنها هربت مع تاجر ألماني واعتنقت المسيحية، ولذلك تُسجل خانة إيمانها «مسيحية» موثقة للفترة من معموديتها سنة 1867 إلى وفاتها. {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992} {cite:prestholdt-salme-2014} أما نشأتها فكانت نشأة أميرة مسلمة من آل بوسعيد، وصندوق معلومات مقالتها وحده يسمي دينها الأول «الإسلام الإباضي»؛ ولأنه شهادة وحيدة عنها شخصيا، لم يُسجل «إباضي» قيمة في بياناتها، وبُيّن ذلك كله في ملاحظة خانة الإيمان، فدين والدها الموثق لا يُحسب شهادة عنها."
    },
    {
     "heading": "المراجع",
     "markdown": "- المصادر المعرّفة المستشهد بها أعلاه، وهي مسجلة في `data/source/`."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/emily-ruete",
    "lang": "ar",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "translators": []
   },
   "updated": "2026-10-25"
  },
  "en": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "Summary",
     "markdown": "Salme bint Said Sultan (30 August 1844 – 29 February 1924), known after her marriage as Emily Ruete, was a Princess of Zanzibar and Oman, the youngest of the 36 children of [[person/said-bin-sultan|Said bin Sultan]], and the author of Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar (1886), the first published autobiography of an Arab woman. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Upbringing in Zanzibar",
     "markdown": "Salme was born at Zanzibar on 30 August 1844, the daughter of Sultan Said and Jilfidan, a Circassian who had come through the slave trade and become a consort of the sultan. She grew up bilingual in Arabic and Swahili in her father's palaces, first at Bet il Mtoni and then in the house of her brother [[person/majid-bin-said|Majid bin Said]], who taught her to ride and to shoot. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} She secretly taught herself to write, an unusual skill for women in her culture at the time. When her father died in 1856 she was declared of age at twelve and received her paternal inheritance; on her mother's death in 1859 she inherited three further plantations. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Secretary to Barghash's party",
     "markdown": "When her brothers Majid and Barghash disputed the throne in 1859, Salme favoured Majid in her sympathies, but because she could write she became, at fifteen, the secretary of Barghash's party. A British gunboat helped end the rising quickly and Barghash was exiled to Bombay for two years; Salme later reconciled with Majid, which earned her Barghash's lasting enmity. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Flight to Aden and marriage",
     "markdown": "In Stone Town she became acquainted with her neighbour, the German merchant Rudolph Heinrich Ruete, and became pregnant by him. In August 1866, after the pregnancy had become obvious, she fled aboard the British frigate HMS Highflyer to the British colony of Aden, where she took Christian instruction and was baptised before her marriage on 30 May 1867; her first son, Heinrich, born at Aden in December 1866, died in France on the way to Germany. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Life in Europe and widowhood",
     "markdown": "The Ruetes settled in Hamburg and had a son and two daughters, but Rudolph died in a tram accident in 1870, leaving her a widow in difficult economic circumstances after the authorities denied her inheritance claims. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} In those years she wrote her memoirs in German: Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin was published in 1886 and translated into English in 1888, giving an inside picture of life in Zanzibar between 1850 and 1865 and of her family. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} In 1993 van Donzel published an expanded edition containing the Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs and Syrian Customs and Usages. {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Between two worlds",
     "markdown": "After her widowhood she was caught up in Chancellor Bismarck's colonial plans, amid speculation that her son might be installed as Sultan of Zanzibar, and she revisited Zanzibar in 1885 and again in 1888 without gaining the inheritance or reconciliation she hoped for. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} Between 1889 and 1914 she lived in Jaffa and then Beirut, returned to Europe, and died at Jena on 29 February 1924, aged 79, of severe pneumonia. {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "Her faith",
     "markdown": "The academic sources record her conversion to Christianity: van Donzel's editorial biography states that at Aden she was baptized with the Christian name Emily and married there, and Prestholdt states that she eloped with a German merchant and converted to Christianity; her faith is therefore recorded as documented christian for the period from her baptism in 1867 to her death. {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992} {cite:prestholdt-salme-2014} She was raised, however, a Muslim princess of the Al Bu Said house, and only her article's infobox names her first religion personally as Ibadi Islam; as that is a single personal attestation, no ibadi value is recorded for her birth segment, the whole position is stated in her faith note, and her father's documented affiliation is not counted as attestation about her."
    },
    {
     "heading": "References",
     "markdown": "- The defined sources cited above, registered in `data/source/`."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/emily-ruete",
    "lang": "en",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "translators": []
   },
   "updated": "2026-10-25"
  },
  "ur": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "خلاصہ",
     "markdown": "سلمہ بنت سعید سلطان (30 اگست 1844ء – 29 فروری 1924ء)، جو شادی کے بعد ایملی روئٹے کے نام سے معروف ہوئیں، زنجبار و عمان کی شہزادی اور [[person/said-bin-sultan|سعید بن سلطان]] کے چھتیس بچوں میں سب سے چھوٹی تھیں، اور «ایک عرب شہزادی کی یادداشتیں» (1886ء) کی مصنفہ ہیں، جو کسی عرب خاتون کی پہلی شائع شدہ آپ بیتی ہے۔ {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "زندگی اور کارنامے",
     "markdown": "وہ زنجبار میں پیدا ہوئیں، عربی و سواحلی میں پلی بڑھیں اور چھپ کر لکھنا سیکھا۔ بھائیوں ماجد و برغش کی کشمکش میں وہ برغش کے گروہ کی کاتب رہیں۔ {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} جرمن تاجر روڈولف ہائنرش روئٹے سے محبت کے بعد وہ اگست 1866ء میں برطانوی جہاز سے عدن فرار ہوئیں، وہاں بپتسمہ لے کر ایملی نام پایا اور 30 مئی 1867ء کو ان سے شادی کی۔ {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en} شوہر 1870ء میں ٹرام حادثے میں فوت ہوئے تو وہ جرمنی میں تنگ دستی کی بیوہ رہ گئیں اور اپنی یادداشتیں لکھیں۔ 1885ء اور 1888ء میں زنجبار گئیں، برسوں یافا و بیروت میں رہیں اور 29 فروری 1924ء کو یینا میں وفات پائی۔ {cite:wikipedia-emily-ruete-en}"
    },
    {
     "heading": "مذہب",
     "markdown": "اکیڈمک مآخذ ان کے عیسائیت قبول کرنے کو درج کرتے ہیں: فان دونزل لکھتے ہیں کہ عدن میں انہوں نے ایملی کے مسیحی نام سے بپتسمہ لیا، اور پریسٹ ہولٹ بھی ان کے عیسائیت قبول کرنے کا ذکر کرتے ہیں، اسی لیے 1867ء سے وفات تک ان کا مذہب «مسیحی» بتوثیق درج ہے۔ {cite:van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992} {cite:prestholdt-salme-2014} ان کی پیدائشی پرورش ایک مسلمان شہزادی کی تھی اور ان کے مضمون کا صندوق اطلاعات ہی واحد مأخذ ہے جو ان کا پہلا مذہب ذاتی طور پر «اباضی اسلام» بتاتا ہے، اس لیے اکیلی شہادت پر اباضی قدر درج نہیں کی گئی، اور یہ ساری صورتحال ایمان کے نوٹ میں بیان کر دی گئی ہے۔"
    },
    {
     "heading": "حوالہ جات",
     "markdown": "- اوپر مستشہد شدہ معرّف ذرائع، جو `data/source/` میں درج ہیں۔"
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/emily-ruete",
    "lang": "ur",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "translators": []
   },
   "updated": "2026-10-25"
  }
 },
 "degree": 6,
 "contemporaries": [
  "person/deli-fuad-pasha",
  "person/jamaat-ali-shah",
  "person/muhammad-kholil-al-bangkalani",
  "person/omer-vrioni-ii",
  "person/warda-al-yaziji",
  "person/zeynalabdin-taghiyev",
  "person/hasan-rami-pasha",
  "person/omer-rustu-pasha",
  "person/ali-hajji-of-akusha",
  "person/akbar-allahabadi",
  "person/syed-ameer-ali",
  "person/mohammad-yaqub-khan"
 ],
 "updated": "2026-10-25",
 "connections": [
  {
   "to": "person/said-bin-sultan",
   "type": "child_of",
   "inverse": false,
   "sources": [
    "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
    "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992"
   ]
  },
  {
   "to": "place/zanzibar",
   "type": "born_in",
   "inverse": false,
   "sources": [
    "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en",
    "source/van-donzel-arabian-princess-1992"
   ]
  },
  {
   "to": "place/zanzibar",
   "type": "lived_in",
   "inverse": false,
   "sources": [
    "source/wikipedia-emily-ruete-en"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  "person/majid-bin-said",
  "person/said-bin-sultan",
  "place/zanzibar",
  "person/abeid-karume",
  "person/ali-bin-said",
  "person/ali-hassan-mwinyi",
  "person/amani-abeid-karume",
  "person/hussein-mwinyi"
 ],
 "license": {
  "prose": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
  "data": "CC0 1.0"
 }
}