Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Saʿīd ibn Sulṭān' (G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville)

Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on Said bin Sultan (born 1791 in Oman, died 19 October 1856 at sea), ruler of Muscat and Oman and of Zanzibar (1806–56) who made Zanzibar the principal power in East Africa and the commercial capital of the western Indian Ocean; it states expressly that he belonged to the Ibadi sect of Islam, and that his will divided his dominions between his sons Majid (Zanzibar) and Thuwaini (Muscat and Oman).