Description

Memoirs of An Arabian Princess From Oman and Zanzibar

By Michael William Werner Said-Ruete Bauer

The family ancestral edition of the Memoirs of An Arabian Princess From Oman and Zanzibar is in honor to a great lady who wrote her memoirs for her children, whom she wished to bequeath as a heritage of faithful motherly love.

Salme, princess of Oman and Zanzibar, daughter of Sultan Said the Great, was born in the Beit el Mtoni, largest of the Zanzibar palaces, in about 1840. Her mother was a ‘tall and shapely’ Circassian slave, one of scores of concubines whose destiny was to give pleasure and comfort to their master as members of the royal harem. But readers expecting revelations of the erotic East beyond the harem screens will be disappointed.

Nor, in this fascinating autobiography, will they discover too many secrets with regard to Salme’s daring romantic dalliance with the German businessman she later married. The affair, which flourished from rooftop to rooftop across the narrow gap separating the lovers, respective town houses, and which led to an early pregnancy, elopement and marriage, scandalized Zanzibar society and almost brought the Sultanate and Britain into serious conflict. But Salme alludes to it only briefly.

What she does provide are countless absorbing insights into everyday life in the harem and the palaces, at a time when Zanzibar was at the height of its influence and at the focal point of an astonishing network of activity, from the lucrative trade in slaves, ivory and cloves to the exploration of the African interior and the political intrigues which characterized the ‘Scramble for Africa’. With an intuitive feel for the value of mystery that might be expected from a daughter of the harem, Salme leaves us in possession of stimulating new knowledge, yet wanting to know more.

Please contact HIS Publishing Group if you are interested in obtaining a copy