Princess Salme of Zanzibar

Inside the House of Wonders – itself an amazing Omani palace – there’s a small exhibition on Princess Salme. I’ve never heard of her, but she sounds like a fascinating woman.

Her mother was one of 75 concubines in the sultan’s harem, but she was well educated and apparently loved her father. She ended up falling in love with a German merchant, got pregnant and managed to run away with him – a big scandal in the 1870s.

Living in Hamburg, she decided to write down her memoirs, an impressive and unique record of the time. She was never allowed to return to Zanzibar.

I had to buy her book of course -- Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar -- at the dusty old ‘library’ on the top of the palace (which has fantastic views of Stone Town and its old fort). It was US$20 – a bit of a rip off – but typical for Zanzibar I guess. The locals all reckon we are millionaires, which we are, in Zanzibar terms.