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

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

A story virtually unknown in the West, about two of the Middle Eastâ‚¬s most remarkable figuresâ‚¬"Omanâ‚¬s Sultan Said and his rebellious daughter Princess Salmeâ‚¬"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.

â‚¬Å“As shrewd, liberal, and enlightened a prince as Arabia has ever produced.â‚¬Â Thatâ‚¬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 contradiction: 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 charactersâ‚¬"from Sultan Said and Princess Salme to the wildly wealthy slave trader Tippu Tip and the indefatigable British antislavery crusader Dr. David Livingstone. The Sultanâ‚¬s Shadow is a brilliantly researched and irresistibly readable foray into the stark brutality and decadent beauty of a vanished world.
Country USA
Brand Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2010-06-29
UnitCount 1
Format Deckle Edge
EANs 9780345469403

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2010-06-29
UnitCount	1
Format	Deckle Edge
EANs	9780345469403

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

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