Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhamma ...

Majid bin Saïd al-Busaidi ( ar, ماجد بن سعيد البوسعيد) ( – ) was the first

Sultan of Zanzibar The sultans of Zanzibar ( ar, سلاطين زنجبار) were the rulers of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which was created on 19 October 1856 after the death of Said bin Sultan, who had ruled Oman and Zanzibar as the sultan of Oman since 1804. Th ...

. He ruled

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

from 19 October 1856 to 7 October 1870. He succeeded his father

Said bin Sultan Sayyid Saïd bin Sultan al-Busaidi ( ar, سعيد بن سلطان, , sw, Saïd bin Sultani) (5 June 1791 – 19 October 1856), was Sultan of Muscat and Oman, the fifth ruler of the Busaid dynasty from 1804 to 4 June 1856. His rule commenced fol ...

as ruler of Zanzibar and East Africa, and briefly (claimed) Oman following Said’s death. During his reign his brother Bargash would prove constantly rebellious and adhered to his rule, nonetheless, Majid remained in power until his untimely death which was due to ‘''over indulgence in sensual pleasures and stimulants''’. The region’s wealth soared, particularly with the controversial slave trade.

Life

Sayyid Majid bin Said was born in 1834 in Zanzibar to

and Sarah, a Circassian suri. Majid was the second eldest of Said’s children born in Zanzibar, after Khalid bin Said (died 1854). Majid became Sultan of the Omani Empire, based at the capital at Zanzibar, following the death of his father, Sayyid

, but his accession was contested. Following the struggle over the accession to the position of Sultan of Oman, Zanzibar and Oman were divided into two separate sultanates, with Majid ruling Zanzibar and his older brother Thuwaini ruling Oman. His marriage produced only one daughter, Sayyida Khanfora bint Majid (who married her cousin, Hamoud bin Mohammed). Consequently, Majid was succeeded as Sultan by his brother

Barghash Sayyid Barghash bin Said al-Busaidi,(1836 – 26 March 1888) ( ar, برغش بن سعيد البوسعيد), was an Omani Sultan and the son of Said bin Sultan, was the second Sultan of Zanzibar. Barghash ruled Zanzibar from 7 October 1870 to 2 ...

. Majid's grandson Ali bin Hamud Al-Busaid later became the 8th Sultan of Zanzibar, while his great-grandson Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Said was the 10th Sultan. In 1866, he purchased the former Confederate commerce raider CSS ''Shenandoah'' and renamed her ''El Majidi'' after himself. In 1871, botanists published a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s belonging to the family Sapindaceae, from Central Africa and called it '' Majidea'' in his honour.

References

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* 1834 births 1870 deaths Sultans of Zanzibar Zanzibari royalty Al Said dynasty Tanzanian people of Omani descent Tanzanian people of Ethiopian descent 19th-century Arabs 19th-century African people 19th-century Omani people {{Africa-royal-stub