Memoirs of an Arab princess

An Eastern Arab princess and daughter of a large Arab Sultan graduated more than a hundred years ago according to her people's traditions, then married a German young man and left her homeland and her father's kingdom for him, leaving a life of luxury and palaces to be swept by fate to foreign lands between London and Berlin, and she replaced a life of mingling and revealing in Europe with a life of women and hijab in the East. Her Arab name is Lady Salma bint Said, and her foreign name is Princess Emily Ruth. Then life became narrow for her after twenty years, or she grew tired of European life and longed to return to her homeland. But the doors of return closed in her face, so she sat down to write in German her story and experiences, recalling her homeland and her people. This rare and strange story, which almost resembles fairy tales and is seldom heard of in the East despite its popularity in the West, is the subject of this book, which we present to Arabic readers today in translation. The princess is Lady Salma, daughter of Mr. Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar (1804-1856), and granddaughter of Imam Ahmed bin Said, founder of the ruling dynasty in Oman.