Sayyid Said bin Sultan

Sayyid Said bin Sultan Al Said ascended the throne of Oman in 1804 at age thirteen. A brilliant naval commander and commercial strategist, he built a powerful modern navy of over twenty frigates, projecting Omani power across the Arabian Sea and East African coastline from Mogadishu to Mozambique.

In 1840, Sultan Said took the unprecedented step of relocating his royal capital from Muscat to Stone Town, Zanzibar, transforming the East African island into the global center of the clove and spice trade. He concluded historic commercial treaties with the United States in 1833 and Great Britain, steering an Indian Ocean trading empire of immense wealth and cosmopolitan diversity.