Said bin Sultan

Said bin Sultan bin Ahmad bin Said al-Busaidi (5 June 1791 – 19 October 1856) was the fifth ruler of the Al Bu Said dynasty and Sultan of Muscat, Oman and Zanzibar, and is regarded as one of the greatest Omani sultans. ¹ In his long reign he built a maritime commercial empire stretching from Oman to the East African coast, and moved his capital to Zanzibar, making it the principal power in East Africa and the commercial capital of the western Indian Ocean. ²

Said was the son of Sultan bin Ahmad, who ruled Oman from 1791 to 1804 and died on an expedition to Basra, having appointed a regent and guardian for his two sons, Salim and Said. ¹ Their uncle Qais bin Ahmad, ruler of Sohar, attempted to seize power; the regent called in Badr bin Saif, who became the effective ruler and sidelined the boys by making Salim governor of al-Masna'ah and Said governor of Barka. ¹ Qais finally agreed to Said's primacy after Said had killed his cousin Badr in 1806, so Said became effective sole ruler, though Salim retained titular status until his death in 1821; Britannica therefore dates his rule from 1806, while the English article dates the succession from 1804. ^{1 2} Said himself used the style sayyid and was never elected to the purely religious office of imam that all his predecessors had held, though Europeans frequently called him imam and sultan. ²

His earlier years were complicated by family and tribal quarrels, Anglo-French rivalry in the Indian Ocean, the expansion of the Wahhabi movement and the depredations of the Qawasim; he developed a small army and a fleet that also served mercantile purposes, and his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1824 showed he could risk absence from his own land. ² He extended his authority along the East African coast, finally subduing Mombasa in 1837, encouraged the immigration of the Indian merchants on whom he depended heavily in his commercial ventures, and his naval officers also traded on his behalf. ^{2 1} He concluded commercial treaties with the United States (1833), Britain and France, and under British pressure accepted successive agreements limiting the slave trade, among them the Hamerton treaty of 1845. ¹ His part in the slave trade and the plantation system of Zanzibar and Pemba is recorded here as the sources record it, as a documented part of his kingdom's economy, neither praised nor condemned in the museum's voice.

Said moved his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar in the 1830s, where it remained while the Omani Empire reached the zenith of its power and wealth. ^{1 2} He introduced clove cultivation to Zanzibar and Pemba, which became among the world's largest producers, and Zanzibar became the western Indian Ocean's leading port for ivory, slaves and spices. ¹

Britannica describes his government as essentially personal and patriarchal, with no developed system of administration: he sat daily in public to settle cases and complaints, was strict in his habits and lavish in his generosity, was an affectionate father who took pleasure in elaborate family gatherings, and was a keen horseman and practical seaman; his will freed his household slaves but not his plantation slaves. ² His daughter Salme's Memoirs of an Arabian Princess (1886) gives an intimate portrait of his private life. ²

Britannica states expressly that Said belonged to the Ibadi sect of Islam, and that he appointed a special judge for his Sunni subjects, who formed a majority of them; the English article's infobox likewise gives his religion as Ibadi Islam. ^{2 1} The entity data therefore records his faith as documented ibadi on those two independent sources — an attestation about Said personally, not only about his house.

Said died at sea on 19 October 1856, near the Seychelles as the English article's death place indicates, was buried in the Makusurani Cemetery at Zanzibar, and was greatly mourned by his subjects. ^{1 2} His will divided his dominions between his sons: Majid, who became ruler of Zanzibar, and Thuwaini, who received Muscat and Oman, separating Zanzibar from Oman thereafter. ²

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.