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{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Emily Ruete
| title        = Sayyida of Zanzibar and Oman
| image        = Emily Ruete (Sayyida Salme), Princess of Zanzibar.jpg
| caption      = Emily Ruete in traditional clothes as Princess of Zanzibar
| birth_name   = [[Sayyid]]a Salma bint Said Al Said
| birth_date   = 30 August 1844
| birth_place  = [[Zanzibar]]
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1924|02|29|1844|08|30|df=y}}
| death_place  = [[Jena, Germany|Jena]], [[Germany]]
| house        = [[Al Said]]
| house-type   = Dynasty
| father       = [[Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman|Sayyid Said bin Sultan Al-Busaid]]
| mother       = Jilfidan
| spouse       = Rudolph Heinrich Ruete
| issue        = Heinrich Ruete <br> Antonie Brandeis <br> Rudolph Said-Ruete <br> Rosalie Troemer
| religion     = [[Ibadi Islam]], later [[Roman Catholicism]]
}}
'''Emily Ruete''' (born '''Sayyida Salma bint Said Al Said''', {{Langx|ar|سالمة بنت سعيد آل سعيد}}; 30 August 1844 – 29 February 1924),<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mU2w8K8IyoEC&q=Sayyida+Salma+bint+ibn+sultan+oman+born|title=An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds: Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs: Syrian Customs and Usages|first=Emilie|last=Said-Ruete|date=1 January 1993|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9004096159|via=Google Books}}</ref> was a [[Princess]] of Zanzibar and [[Oman]]. She was the youngest of the 36 children of [[Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman|Said bin Sultan]], Sultan of the [[Omani Empire]]. She is the author of ''Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar''.

==Early life in Zanzibar==
Salma bint Said was born on 30 August 1844, the daughter of Sultan Said and Jilfidan, a [[Circassians|Circassian]] slave of the [[Circassian slave trade]], turned [[Islamic views on concubinage|concubin]]e (some accounts also note her as [[Georgians|Georgian]]<ref> Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print; From Zanzibar to Beirut by Jeremy Prestholdt, University of California Press, 2014, p.204</ref><ref>Connectivity in Motion: Island Hubs in the Indian Ocean World by Burkhard Schnepel, Edward A. Alpers, 2017, p.148</ref><ref>Balcony, Door, Shutter - Baroque heritage as materiality and biography in Stone Town, Zanzibar by Pamila Gupta, Vienna, 2019, p.14</ref>). Her first years were spent in the huge Bet il Mtoni palace, by the sea about eight kilometres north of [[Stone Town]]. (The palace was mostly demolished in 1914.) She grew up bilingual in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Swahili language|Swahili]]. In 1851 she moved to Bet il Watoro, the house of her brother [[Majid bin Said of Zanzibar]], the later sultan. Her brother taught her to ride and to shoot. In 1853 she moved with her mother to Bet il Tani. She secretly taught herself to write, a skill which was unusual for women in her culture at the time.

When her father died in 1856 she was declared of age, twelve years old, and received her paternal inheritance. This consisted of a plantation with a residence, and 5,429 [[Pound (currency)|pounds]]. After her father's death, her brother [[Thuwaini bin Said, Sultan of Muscat and Oman|Sayyid Thuwaini bin Said al-Said]] became Sultan of Muscat and Oman, while her brother Majid became [[Sultan of Zanzibar]].

In 1859 her mother died and Salma received her maternal inheritance, three plantations. The same year a dispute broke out between her brothers Majid and [[Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar]]. Though she favoured Majid, her favourite sister Khwala made her side with Barghash. Because she could write she acted (at the age of fifteen) as secretary of Barghash's party. With the help of an English gunboat the insurrection of Barghash was soon brought to an end; Barghash was sent into exile in [[Bombay]] for two years and Salma withdrew to [[Kizimbani]], one of her estates. Salma eventually moved back to [[Stone Town]] and made up with Majid. This earned her the lasting enmity of Barghash, as well as a split with her favourite sister Khwala.

[[File:Salma bent said.jpg|thumb|Emily with her husband and two of their children]]
While living in Stone Town she became acquainted with her neighbour, a German merchant, Rudolph Heinrich Ruete (born 10 March 1839; died 6 August 1870) and became pregnant by him. In August 1866, after her pregnancy had become obvious, she fled on board the British frigate {{HMS|Highflyer|1851|6}} commanded by Captain [Thomas] Malcolm Sabine Pasley R.N. and was given passage on his ship to the British colony of [[Aden Province|Aden]]. There she took [[Christianity|Christian]] instruction and was baptised prior to her marriage at Aden on 30 May 1867.<ref name="Academia.edu">{{cite web |url = https://www.academia.edu/18481427 |title = From Zanzibar to Beirut: Sayyida Salme bint Said and the Tensions of Cosmopolitanism |website = [[Academia.edu]] |year = 2014 |accessdate = 2019-01-28 }}</ref> She had given birth to a son, Heinrich, in Aden in December 1866, but he died in France en route to Germany in the summer of 1867.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11754/ |title = Memoirs of an Arabian Princess: An Autobiography |website = [[World Digital Library]] |year = 1888 |accessdate = 2013-09-19 }}</ref>

==Life in Europe==
The Ruetes settled in [[Hamburg]],<ref name="WDL"/> where they had another son and two daughters. They were:

*{{Interlanguage link|Antonie Brandeis|lt=Antonie Thawka Ruete|de|Antonie Brandeis}} (25 March 1868 – 24 April 1945), who married Eugen Brandeis (1846–1930) in 1898 and had two daughters. From 1898-1904 she lived on Jaluit ([[Marshall Islands]]), where her husband served as German imperial governor. During this time, she started collecting ethnographic objects and taught herself photography. For nearly three decades, she was an active member of the German colonial women's movement.<ref>https://boasblogs.org/dcntr/the-ambivalence-of-gender/ and https://hamburgische-geschichten.de/2021/05/09/zwischen-hamburg-und-jaluit-die-sammlerin-ethnographin-und-kolonialaktivistin-antonie-brandeis-geb-ruete/ both 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-10.</ref>
*{{III|Rudolph Said-Ruete|nl|Rudolph Said-Ruete}} (13 April 1869 – 1 May 1946). A journalist and author, with the rise of the [[Nazi Party]], he renounced his German citizenship in 1934 and settled in London, becoming a British subject and dying at [[Lucerne, Switzerland]] after [[World War II]]. In 1901, he married Mary Therese Matthias (1872–?) and had a son and a daughter, Werner Heinrich (1902-1962) and Salme Matilda Benvenuta Olga (1910–?). Through his marriage, he was a cousin of [[Alfred Moritz]], 1st [[Baron Melchett]], who became the first chairman of [[Imperial Chemical Industries]].
*Rosalie Ghuza Ruete (16 April 1870 – 14 February 1948), who married Major-General Martin Troemer of the [[Royal Prussian Army]].

Her husband died in 1870 after a tram accident, leaving Ruete in difficult economic circumstances because the authorities denied her inheritance claims. Partly to alleviate these economic problems she wrote ''Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar'', first published as ''Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin'' in the [[German Empire]] in 1886, and shortly afterwards published in the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]. The book provides the first known autobiography of an [[Arab]] woman. The book presents the reader with an intimate picture of life in Zanzibar between 1850 and 1865, and an inside portrait of her brothers Majid bin Said of Zanzibar and Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, the later sultans of Zanzibar.

After the death of her husband, Emily Ruete was caught up in the colonial plans of [[Otto von Bismarck]]. There were speculations that Bismarck wanted to install her son as Sultan of Zanzibar. She revisited Zanzibar in 1885 and in 1888. Between 1889 and 1892, she lived in [[Jaffa]], from where she moved to [[Beirut]] in 1892. In 1914 she returned to Europe to live with her daughter Rosa in [[Bromberg]], where Martin Troemer was stationed as a military commander. She died in [[Jena]], Germany, at the age of 79, from severe [[pneumonia]].

In 1993, a new English translation, enlarged with memoirs and letters, was published as ''An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds: Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs, Syrian Customs and Usages''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Said-Ruete |first=Emilie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mU2w8K8IyoEC&dq=an+arabian+princess+between+two+worlds&pg=PP1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=an%20arabian%20princess%20between%20two%20worlds&f=false |title=An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds: Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs : Syrian Customs and Usages |date=1993-01-01 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-09615-8 |language=en}}</ref> This was followed in 2022 by ''Memoirs of an Arabian Princess. An Accurate Translation of Her Authentic Voice'', translated and enlarged by Emily Ruete's great-great-great-daughter Andrea Emily Stumpf.

==Archive and book collection Said-Ruete==
[[File:Boekenkast_bibliotheek_Said-Ruete.jpg|thumb|Said-Ruete library]]
[[File:Brieven van Emily Ruete (1844-1924) aan Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936) Or. 8952 A 902.pdf|thumb|Letter by Emily Ruete to Snouck Hurgronje (1887)]]
Emily had befriended Dutch orientalist [[Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje]] in 1887. Shortly after Snouck Hurgronje's death, her son Rudolph Said-Ruete donated her book collection to the [[Oosters Instituut]], created in memory of Snouck Hurgronje. The library was made available to scholars at the seat of the institute, the Snouck Hurgronje House, Rapenburg 61 in Leiden. The books, the monumental bookcase, and other materials, were later housed in the [[Netherlands Institute for the Near East]]. Emily and Rudolph's archive is kept in the [[Leiden University Library]] (personal documents, photographs and correspondence).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Sayyida Salma (Emily Ruete) and Rudolph Said Ruete archive {{!}} Collection Guides {{!}} Leiden University Libraries |url=https://collectionguides.universiteitleiden.nl/resources/ubl649 |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=collectionguides.universiteitleiden.nl}}</ref>

There is a permanent exhibition about Emily Ruete in the [[Palace Museum, Zanzibar|People's Palace]] in [[Stonetown]], the palace constructed by her brother, Sultan Barghash.

==In fiction==
Emily Ruete appears as a minor character in [[M.M. Kaye]]'s novel ''Trade Wind''.  The book, set in Zanzibar during the late 1850s, mentions her involvement with her brother Barghash's failed attempt to take the throne from their brother Majid and her subsequent interest in and marriage to Rudolph.

== Bibliography ==

* [[doi:10.3167/gps.2022.400105|Neumann, Klaus. "Black Lives Matter, a Princess from Zanzibar, Bismarck, and German Memorial Hygiene". ''German Politics and Society'' 40.1 (2022): 77-103.]]
* {{Cite book |editor=Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz and Sunil Sharma |title=Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women |url=https://iupress.org/9780253062390/three-centuries-of-travel-writing-by-muslim-women/ |year=2022 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253062390}}
* {{Cite book | last = Bird| first = Christiane| title = The Sultan's Shadow| year = 2010 | publisher = Random House| isbn = 978-0345469403}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Editions==
{{Commons category|Emily Ruete (Sayyida Salme)}} 
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|lcheading= Ruete, Emilie, 1844-1924}}

* Ruete, Emily: [https://archive.org/details/memoirsanarabia00ruetgoog ''Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar'' (1888)]. Many reprints. 
* Ruete, Emily, E. van Donzel (Editor): [https://books.google.com/books?id=mU2w8K8IyoEC&dq=an%20arabian%20princess%20between%20two%20worlds&pg=PP1 ''An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds: Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs, Syrian Customs and Usages'']. Leiden (The Netherlands), (1993). {{ISBN|90-04-09615-9}}. Presents the reader with a picture of life in Zanzibar between 1850 and 1865, and with an intelligent observer's reactions to life in Germany in the Bismarck period. Emily Ruete's writings describe her homesickness and her attempts to recover her Zanzibar inheritance. 
* Andrea Emily Stumpf (ed.), [https://www.sayyidasalme.com/memoirs ''Memoirs of an Arabian Princess. An Accurate Translation of Her Authentic Voice'']. 2022. {{ISBN|9781732397538}}. New English edition including the original corrections and additions left by Emily and Rosalie Ruete.
*Said-Ruete, Rudolph: ''Eine auto-biographische Teilskizze. (Die Al-bu-Said Dynastie in Arabien und Ostafrika)''. Luzern, 1932, (in German).
*Ruete, Emily: [[iarchive:memoirsanarabia00stragoog|''Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar'' (1907)]].

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruete, Emily}}
[[Category:1844 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Arab people]]
[[Category:20th-century Arab people]]
[[Category:Princesses]]
[[Category:Zanzibari emigrants to Germany]]
[[Category:Converts to Catholicism from Islam]]
[[Category:Al Said dynasty]]
[[Category:Zanzibari writers]]
[[Category:19th-century memoirists]]
[[Category:Tanzanian people of Omani descent]]
[[Category:19th-century letter writers]]
[[Category:Daughters of Omani sultans]]
[[Category:20th-century Omani women]]
[[Category:20th-century Omani people]]