The Sultan's Shadow: One Family's Rule at the Crossroads of East and West

by Christiane Bird

A story virtually unknown in the West, about two of the Middle East’s most remarkable figures—Oman’s Sultan Said and his rebellious daughter Princess Salme—comes to life in this narrative. From their capital on the sultry African island of Zanzibar, Sultan Said and his descendants were shadowed and all but shattered by the rise and fall of the nineteenth-century East African slave trade.

“As shrewd, liberal, and enlightened a prince as Arabia has ever produced.” That’s how explorer Richard Burton described Seyyid Said Al bin Sultan Busaid, who came to power in Oman in 1804 when he was fifteen years old. During his half-century reign, Said ruled with uncanny as a believer in a tolerant Islam who gained power through bloodshed and perfidy, and as an open-minded, intellectually curious man who established relations with the West while building a vast commercial empire on the backs of tens of thousands of slaves. His daughter Salme, born to a concubine in a Zanzibar harem, scandalized her family and people by eloping to Europe with a German businessman in 1866, converting to Christianity, and writing the first-known autobiography of an Arab woman.

Christiane Bird paints a stunning portrait of violent family feuds, international intrigues, and charismatic characters—from Sultan Said and Princess Salme to the wildly wealthy slave trader Tippu Tip and the indefatigable British antislavery crusader Dr. David Livingstone. The Sultan’s Shadow is a brilliantly researched and irresistibly readable foray into the stark brutality and decadent beauty of a vanished world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Middle East, Africa, Biography, Eastern Africa, Historical

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Christiane Bird has written about a wide variety of topics, ranging from the world of music to the Middle East. Her books have involved travels in place (to Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Oman, and Zanzibar) and travels in time (from New York City's prehistory through to its present days). She has worked on staff at the New York Daily News and published articles in many different publications, including the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. She is also an avid reader of fiction and has published short stories in The Southern Review and Antaeus.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, a reader friendly history of a sultanate!

In the introduction, Christiane Bird says that the book was inspired from her reading Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar. Studying the princess led Bird to the study of Oman (which ruled the island) and of slavery (which was a way of life there and an important export). After the first few chapters which mostly take place in Oman, the focus is on Zanzibar with Princess's story woven throughout.

Princess Salme was the daughter of a slave and the Sultan. The slave system of this place and time was much more benign than that of the American plantation system. All the sultan's children were born free and were raised and educated as royals. Their mothers were freed upon the death of the sultan. Salme eloped to Germany and eventually got involved in international diplomacy regarding Zanzibar.

While it does not interfere with the quality of the work, I thought the sections on expeditions of Livingston and Stanley were overly long for their relationship to the story. The Tippu Tip story is also too long, but is germane in that Tippu Tip is part of the Zanzibar story.

The "Notes" section shows the large number of sources pulled together to create this book. The "Notes" is more than a list of citations, it has a narrative that often describes the source and its level of objectivity. There is a very good page of maps labeling all the points of referred to in the text. There are no plates.

I've read, and tried to read, a number of histories of Middle East countries and they have not been "user friendly". The problem isn't just the textbook nature of the prose; it is my lack of background. The large number of unfamiliar places, people, tribes or battles makes the story hard to place and has too often requires Wikipedia consultation every 5 pages. Bird seems to know what I need to know and how much of the unfamiliar I can handle. The prose and the pacing of content are excellent.

Both this new book and the 2005 book, A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan show Bird to be a versatile and gifted writer.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a review of this in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/bo...) and thought I'd check it out. I had the idea that this book would mostly be about Sayyida Salme (later Emily Ruete), a princess of Zanzibar who eloped and moved to Germany in the mid 1800s. But it turned out to cover a myriad of topics, including the history of Oman and Zanzibar, the history of the Omani/Zanzibari sultanate, and slavery and exploration in east Africa. Many character from that time period are featured in their own chapters as well -- people like David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, and the slave and ivory trader, Tipu Tip. Often-times, these kinds narrative side trips annoy me in a history book, especially when the topic doesn't seem to have much to do with the main story. This book does trend in that direction, although the digressions didn't bug me all that much in this case. I suppose because the various people and topics were of interest to me.

Although the middle of the book deals heavily with Salme's life in Zanzibar and the intrigues of her vast extended family, she drops out of the picture toward the end and the book just kind of stops. Having the last chapter state that "she lived another 30 years..." and then just stopping was a tad abrupt. I would like to have learned more about her later life and the lives of her children.

But if you have any interest in Zanzibar, African history or religious culture clashes, you'll enjoy this.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my quest for new history books about places outside the run-of-the-mill western experience, I came upon this lovely volume...and discovered a vibrant, complicated, cultured society in southern Arabia with distinct and tragic relations with the imperialist west of the 19th century. This was a rich, detailed, and luxuriant read, which also leaves a sad after taste...wistful for what once existed.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially I was delighted by this book--the beautiful way Bird sets the scenes at Muscat and Zanzibar are wonderful (especially in a very cold streak of late-winter weather.) However. My understanding when I picked this book up was that it told the story of the life of an Omani princess, Salme. What actually turned out to be the case was that this book was more about the history of the East African slave trade, and narration on Salme's life was occasionally slotted in as convenient.

While I feel edified, having read it, the ADD nature of it made it a burden to finish (I skimmed the later half on and off) and I never really relished picking it up. I finished it in a spurt today mostly because logging on to GoodReads, I saw it had devoured a good three weeks of my time. Though the stories are all interesting, they're barely related (try fitting together: Stanley and Livingston... Portuguese East Indian trading atrocities... the conversion of Oman to Islam... even the 'Sultan' of the title refers to a total of at least four men, by my count, throughout the completely disorganized thread of the book.)

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is history in search of a theme, a structure, a plot. In the end, the book remains a series of interesting chapters only loosely strung together by one rather minor sultan's questionable influence. If the author had truly traced the influence of an historically significant sultan, that would have been one thing, but she doesn't. We get chapters on a notorious slave trader, an English resident in Zanzibar, and even the wonderful but unrelated story of the explorers Burton and Speke searching for the Mountains of the Moon. Not to mention Stanley and Livingstone. Perhaps if the book had been about the slave trade in Zanzibar, it might have had a sensible and coherent structure. As it is, I kept reading because the history was interesting, the book was well written from paragraph to paragraph, and I'm an optimist who kept expecting the point of the book to become clear. Alas, it never did. Some fascinating characters and insights into 19th-century Africa, but no cohesion. A struggle to get through.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of a Zanzibar princess is used to look at the history of Zanzibar and the East African slave trade, with insights into the race for African colonization by the major European powers. Livingston and Stanley's journeys are re-hashed with no new insight or information, and the interesting story of slaver Tippu Tip is detailed.
It is far from a compelling read, and took me forever to finish it - you put it down, but feel no great urge to pick it up again. If you are interested in Arab slavery, this may be worth your while, but as general entertainment or historical study it is underwhelming.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, but I must agree with many of the reviewers that the blurbs and other ads about the book are misleading...it is basically a history of Oman during the 1600's to 1900 's....it might have been better served in the hands of a historian then a travel writer....

[Chris Hays · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first portion of this book. I like the descriptions regarding the history of the area I live, how the slave trade was different than the Atlantic and how the book did not focus on specific dates. However, the story starts to meander the longer the book goes on. One chapter focuses on a character and then it jumps to a different character or place in time to set up something else. I feel that the unification in the first portion focuses on the history of Oman and Zanzibar. Yet, when it comes to the downfall, things are scattered, different explorers from different countries, meeting at unrelated places, etc. The book starts well and then frays into random pieces which were hard to keep together.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and the first book I have found that is written for a general audience dealing with the Omani Sultanate in Zanzibar. Even if you are not "into" East African history, this is engaging and draws in a lot of fascinating material, including the story of Princess Salme, who married a German citizen and spent the rest of her life in a sort of exile in Germany but who always pined for Zanzibar.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. It is an accessible history about a fascinating part of the world. The focus is on one family and their rule, but the author seamlessly weaves in personal histories of other historic characters whose lives affected the history of the region. The details about the Indian Ocean/East African slave trade were horrifying and a good reminder of how awful slavery is.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting history of Oman, Zanzibar and Eastern Africa. The history of this area was totally unknown to me, so I found the book very interesting.

[C.K. Mackenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I expected. Good history which is what I wanted it for but not exactly as advertised.

[Paloma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great readable history of east Africa with a personal backdrop.

[Dan Rheingans · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I learned a good deal from this book, it's tendency to jump topics and focuses really became distracting. Bird's reliance on "maybe" statements throughout the book were also extremely frustration as historical works mixed with conjecture with no real evidence isn't a fun read. I wouldn't suggest this really to anyone to read. Took me forever to get thru it and, while I did learn some interesting bits, the overall composition of the book is neither user-friendly, nor well written.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little-known topic: the story of Omani sultans and their entry and exit to power in running the slave trade to and through Zanzibar. the book's introduction gives excellent accounts of the geography and the history of leadership of Oman. This is a good lead-in to the story of Seyyid Said and his family. The author has connected the near-mythical stories of Livingstone, Stanley, Tippu Tip and the various sultans and foreign emissaries who had a large effect on the trade and economy on the island of Zanzibar.

The only weakness of this book is that the author sometimes forgets that this is a non-fiction book and tries to jazz it up, sometimes awkwardly, with dialogue between characters. While the letters of Seyyid's daughter who emigrated to Germany may have contained references to possible conversations, it gives the book an odd feeling. There was also perhaps too much emphasis on this particular character, Salme, who had little effect on Zanzibar or Oman but who was an interesting story in her own right.

Very readable.

[John Daly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun read, describing extremely exotic cultures in Oman and Zanzibar. It intertwines amazing lives:
- the Sultan who moved his court from Arabia to Africa,
- the Arab Princess who had a love affair with and married a German becoming a Christian in the process, and wrote the first book by an African woman.
-- explorers Richard Burton, John Speke (discoverer of the source of the Nile), Dr. Livingston and Henry Stanley, and
-- Tippu Tip (who conquered and ruled the eastern Congo, brought 70,000 pound of ivory and a couple of thousand slaves back with him to Zanzibar, ended as one of the richest men on the island, and also published his biography.

I loved this book. But it is not a formal history; it is primarily a good read.

Here is my blog post with a longer review: http://stconsultant.blogspot.com/2014...

[Trenchologist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to learn more about specific things covered in this book--Oman and its history, a sense of its place, people, values and splintering faiths of Islam, East Africa & its slave trade that paralleled that going on from West Africa to the USoA--and I did have quite a bit elucidated & expanded further than the limited scope I already possessed. But the structuring threw me off a bit, with digressions that seemed to go overlong before being looped back into the main, while others' stories were told in a brief lump then dismissed. Maybe it was my general unfamiliarity, maybe some balance in the narratives would have helped. Sultan Said & his daughter Salme, each, however, were more than worth the read, interesting people ahead of their times yet fitting (even impeded) wholly to the time they lived.

[Donna Jo Atwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers an area that I know practically nothing about, 19th century Oman/Zanzibar. The information was interesting and told through the framework of the life of Sultan Said and his daughter Princess Salme. It is also the story of Islam and of EAst African slavery.
It is too bad that every time we got a glimpse of Salme, Bird would slip away from her life to examine some aspect of the culture that she lived in. It did introduce the reader to an enormous amount of material in a readable way, but short-changed the Princess, who sounded like a fascinating person.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting enough read but not quite what I expected. The story covers a lot of ground with the Al Busaid dynasty as only part of the story. Actually, it is more of a general history of East Africa. The intriguing story of Salme Said, sister to the Sultan of Zanzibar, who marries a German is scattered throughout. Oddly, the preface pretty much covers her story. Still, it's a good basic read about the rise of Islam, the slave trade and a bit of African exploration. I just wished for more biography.

[Rhonda Hankins]

Who knew that Oman once ruled over Zanzibar? Not I . . . at least not until I read this history book.

I learned a lot from this book and what I learned was really interesting and yet somehow the book didn't hold my interest. Isn't that weird? I don't know if it was so packed with details that I found it hard to follow or if the writing wasn't lively enough to keep my attention, but reading dragged and I procrastinated picking up the book.

In any event, this is my OMAN book for my reading-around-the-world project.

[liirogue · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good book, but I was disappointed. I had thought it was about Salme, an Omani princess that eloped with a German man and ran off to Europe in the 1800s. Once I got into it, I realized it was more about her family, the Al-Busaids of Oman. But that isn't really the case either. It ends up being a general history of the area and peoples. And while an interesting history, it just wasn't what I expected or wanted.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Perhaps if I hadn't taken so long to read it, I would've enjoyed it more. Organizationally, it was strange, and to me it was yet another example of an author saying that he/she would write about one thing and ended up talking about something else (related but, as far as I could tell, peripheral).

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish this. It was somewhat interesting, but I felt like I was being bombarded with names and having trouble following. Maybe a genealogical guide would have helped? Also, a bit of a dry read.

[Rhett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more interesting than I had believed when starting. This work meandered through many aspects of the time and place which it details. There is much description of the African slave trade, European imperialism in Africa and much more.

[Roger Santi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the scope of the book much more than I had expected. It deals with the history of Zanzibar and Oman, and much of east Africa, and the involvement of Europe in the area. It was well written and a quick read.

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but I was never able to totally get into it. Salme really deserves a biography of her own.

[Susan]

Halfway through and the lovely historical writing is getting stale. Losing momentum.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Such a wonderful recreation of the sights, sounds, even smells of Zanzibar with a rich background tapestry of culture and history. And of course the gripping real story of the princess.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a great review of this book written, but Goodreads ate it! Bottom line: you like African history, you like Middle Eastern history, BAM! You will like this book.

[Kenghis Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, if a bit tedious at times. Scholarship is impeccable and generally informative and entertaining.