Sayyida Salme lived a remarkable life in remarkable times and told the tale more than a century ago in her Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, the first book commercially published by an Arab woman. She was born in 1844 as a princess on the island of Zanzibar, daughter of the great Omani Sayyid Said bin Sultan and his Circassian slave Djilfidan. By the time she published her Memoirs in German in 1886, she had moved from Arab royalty amidst harem politics to the challenges of raising a family as a single mother in a foreign land. Her experience breached boundaries across color and culture lines, religions, countries, and hemispheres. Her exceptional path gave her exceptional insights that are still relevant. Sayyida Salme's life reflects a degree of determination and search for self-expression that still fascinate readers and motivate scholars around the world today.

Not long after the original publication of the Memoirs, two translations appeared in 1888 and 1907. No longer copyrighted, these translations have been reprinted in various editions that are easily and cheaply available. But no matter the packaging, they all suffer from the same serious flaw: They are not entirely true to the original. In an effort to respect the author and uphold contemporary standards of authenticity, this new edition presents an accurate translation in readable English fit for the modern age. Written with great care by her great-great-granddaughter, it seeks to revive her original narrative in her authentic voice. Through these Memoirs, we can learn much about Sayyida Salme's time and place in history - and about ourselves.

Andrea Emily Stumpf is the great-great-granddaughter of Sayyida Salme / Emily Ruete. She is in a direct line through the women of five generations over a century and a half. As a lawyer and trained wordsmith, she uses her native English and German to bridge the gap from the original nineteenth-century publication to an accurate, updated translation that is easy to read and hard to put down. In a gesture of respect for a remarkable woman and voice, and in the interest of scholarship looking to an original source, she has written this new translation for readers worldwide both to honor her remarkable ancestor's voice and to replace the flawed historical translation that are otherwise so widely available.

CONTENTS

Introduction:

On Context and Content.................... viii

Memoirs of an Arabian Princess (translated)

Preface..................................................................................... 1

Volume 1

1 Bet il Mtoni............................................................................. 3

2 Bet il Watoro...........................................................................12

3 A Day at Bet il Sahel...............................................................19

4 Of Our Life at Bet il Watoro and Bet il Sahel...........................26

5 Relocating to Bet il Tani...........................................................30

6 Daily Life in Our House............................................................34

7 Our Mealtimes.........................................................................39

8 Birth and Early Years of a Prince or Princess..........................43

9 School in the Orient.................................................................49

10 Annual Provisions, Personal Care, and Fashion in Our House.....55

11 On a Plantation.......................................................................59

12 The Father's Voyage...............................................................65

13 News of a Death......................................................................71

14 Our Mourning..........................................................................75

15 Personalities and Stories of My Siblings.................................80

16 Status of Women in the Orient................................................96

Volume 2

17 Arab Matrimony....................................................................... 111

18 Arab Visits Among the Ladies................................................. 115

19 The Audience; Interactions Among Men................................. 119

20 The Time of Fasting................................................................ 123

21 The Small Festival.................................................................. 127

22 The Big Festival...................................................................... 132

23 An Offering Festival at Chem Chem Spring............................ 136

24 Diseases and Medical Care; the Possessed........................... 142

25 Slavery..................................................................................... 148

26 My Mother's Death; a Palace Revolution................................ 153

27 Kizimbani and Bububu............................................................. 169

28 My Last Stay in Zanzibar.......................................................... 176

29 Great Transformations.............................................................. 181

30 Sayyid Barghash in London..................................................... 185

31 Returning to the Homeland After Nineteen Years..................... 191

Afterword (original English)............................................................ 206

From the translator:

On Contributions...............................................208

On Family..........................................................211

On Fate.............................................................214

On Controversy.................................................217

On Translating...................................................225

List of Images.................................................................................. 228