Sultanate of Zanzibar in the context of "Sultan of Zanzibar"

Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. It gained momentum in the western world in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. The first country to abolish and punish slavery for indigenous people was Spain with the New Laws in 1542.

The House of Al Bu Said (Arabic: آل بوسعيد, Arabic pronunciation: [aːl buː sa.ʕiːd]), is the current ruling royal family of Oman, and former ruling house of the Omani Empire (1744–1856), Sultanate of Muscat and Oman (1856–1970) and the Sultanate of Zanzibar (1856–1964). It was founded by Ahmad bin Said Al Busaidi on 20 November 1744 and is currently headed by Haitham bin Tariq Al Said.

The Omani Empire (Arabic: الْإِمْبَرَاطُورِيَّة الْعُمَانِيَّة) was a maritime empire, vying with Portugal and Britain for trade and influence in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. After rising as a regional power in the 18th century, the empire at its peak in the 19th century saw its influence or control extend across the Strait of Hormuz to modern-day Iran and Pakistan, and as far south as Cape Delgado in what is now Mozambique. After the death of Said bin Sultan in 1856 the empire was divided between his sons into two sultanates, an African section (Sultanate of Zanzibar) ruled by Majid bin Said and an Asian section (Sultanate of Muscat and Oman) ruled by Thuwaini bin Said.

Slavery existed in the Sultanate of Zanzibar until 1909. Slavery and slave trade existed in the Zanzibar Archipelago for at least a thousand years. During the 19th century, the rise of large-scale clove and coconut plantations under Omani Arab rule led to a significant expansion of the slave system. By some estimates, enslaved people constituted up to two-thirds of the archipelago's population at its peak. Zanzibar was internationally known as a major player in the Indian Ocean slave trade, where slaves from the Swahili coast of Eastern Africa were trafficked across the Indian Ocean to Oman in the Arabian Peninsula during the Zanzibar slave trade.

During the 19th-century, Britain conducted an international abolitionist campaign against the Sultanate and restricted and eventually abolished the slavery and slave trade in Zanzibar via a number of treaties between 1822 and 1897, resulting in the end of the slave trade and finally the end of slavery itself in 1909.

Sayyid Majid bin Saïd al-Busaidi (Arabic: ماجد بن سعيد البوسعيد) (c. 1834 – (1870-10-07)7 October 1870) was the first Sultan of Zanzibar. He ruled Zanzibar from 19 October 1856 to 7 October 1870.

He succeeded his father Said bin Sultan 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 Zanzibar slave trade.

The Arab slave trade refers to various periods in which a slave trade has been carried out under the auspices of Arab peoples or Arab countries. The Arab slave trades are often associated or connected to the history of slavery in the Muslim world. The trans-Saharan slave trade relied on networks of all Arab, Berber, and sub-Saharan African merchants.

The Zanzibar Revolution (Swahili: Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar; Arabic: ثورة زنجبار, romanized: Thawrat Zanjibār) began on 12 January 1964 and led to the overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar Jamshid bin Abdullah and his mainly Arab government by the island's majority Black African population.

Zanzibar was an ethnically diverse state consisting of a number of islands off the east coast of Tanganyika. Formally separated from German East Africa in 1890, it had become fully independent in 1963, with responsibility for its own defense and foreign affairs, as a result of Britain giving up its protectorate over it. In a series of parliamentary elections preceding this change, the Arab minority succeeded in retaining the hold on power it had inherited from Zanzibar's former history as an overseas territory of Oman.

Ahmed Yusuf Mahamud (Somali: Axmed Yuusuf Maxamuud, Arabic: أحمد يوسف محمود) was a Somali Sultan of the Geledi sultanate, reigning from 1848 to 1878 and succeeded his father Yusuf Mahamud after his demise at the battle of Adaddey Suleyman. Ahmed was crowned as the fourth Sultan, and his rule marked a period of great prosperity in the Sultanate. The Sultan is credited as having brought over 20,000 Somali troops to free the slaves of Zanzibar.