Global Societies Journal

This paper analyzes the writings of Sayyida Salme bint Sa’id ibn Sultan (1844-1924), the Zanzibari-Omani princess who married a German merchant and converted to Christianity. While she spent the rest of her life as Emily Ruete, existentially she lived “between two worlds.” I argue she successfully navigated her core identities as an Islamic(ate) woman despite adopting and adapting to European customs. Her successful Memoirs of An Arabian Princess, originally published in German as Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin in 1886, and her Letters Home (Briefe nach der Heimat), published in 1993, demonstrate her ongoing significance to scholars of gender, travel, globalization, and culture. I seek to expand her legacy by going beyond the constraining narrative that she failed to achieve her initial goal of monetary remuneration. I will instead focus on moments of hybridity, wisdom, resilience, and growth to show how she made progress in her second goal: to rectify distorted views of “the South.”