Jamshid bin Abdullah | |
Succession: | Sultan of Zanzibar |
Reign: | 1 July 1963 – 12 January 1964 |
Predecessor: | Sir Abdullah bin Khalifa |
Successor: | Abeid Karume (as President of Zanzibar) |
Birth Date: | 16 September 1929 |
Birth Place: | Unguja, Zanzibar |
Spouse: | Zuleika bint Abdullah Al Aufy |
Issue: | Sayyid Ali bin Jamshid Al Said Sayyida Matuka bint Jamshid Al Said Sayyid Khalifa bin Jamshid Al Said Sayyid Abdullah bin Jamshid Al Said Sayyid Wasfi bin Jamshid Al Said Sayyida Adla bint Jamshid Al Said Sayyid Gharib bin Jamshid Al Said |
House: | Al Said |
Father: | Sir Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Said |
Mother: | Sayyida Tohfa bint Ali Al Said |
Jamshid bin Abdullah Al Busaidi (Arabic: جمشيد بن عبد الله البوسعيدي; born 16 September 1929)[1] [2] is a Zanzibari royal who was the last reigning Sultan of Zanzibar. He was deposed in the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution, after the United Kingdom gave up its British Protectorate.
Jamshid ruled Zanzibar from 1 July 1963 to 12 January 1964. On 10 December 1963, the United Kingdom gave up its British protectorate over the already self-governing Zanzibar, leaving it as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth under Jamshid, responsible for its own defence and foreign affairs. But this state of affairs was short-lived. Without British protection the Sultan was soon overthrown by the majority Africans in the Zanzibar Revolution.
He fled into exile, firstly to Oman, but was not allowed to settle there permanently.[3] He later moved to the United Kingdom, settling in Portsmouth[4] with his wife and children.[5]
While his children and siblings were allowed to settle in Oman in the 1980s, the Omani government continually denied Jamshid's requests to join them, citing security reasons.[6] Their stance changed in September 2020 when, after Jamshid had lived more than 50 years in the United Kingdom, the government of the new Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, granted his request to return to his ancestral land as a member of the Al Said royal family, but not as a titular Sultan.[7]