Call Her by Her Name

Salma, Salama, Salamah, Salima, Salimah, plus other variations, [1] and Salme. Lest there be any doubt: Only the last one is the correct name of the Omani princess that was born on the island of Zanzibar in 1844. No birth record would have told us the Latin spelling, but we do have countless other indications that this is how she spelled her own name for Western usage.

That starts with her Memoirs, which Sayyida Salme wrote in German. [2] How can there be so many misspellings when she spelled out her name no less than ten times in her own account? [3] Most of the misspellings even occur in contexts where people quote from or refer to her writings – be it scholars, historians, journalists, or fans – and yet they still manage to misspell her name. [4] Here, for example, is the first instance of her self-naming in the Memoirs:

Once, when I was about nine years old, my very rambunctious brother Hamdan, who was about my age, shot an arrow into my side, which fortunately caused no great harm. When the father learned of the incident, he told me: “Salme, go and get Hamdan for me.” I had hardly arrived with my brother when he was subjected to a stream of invectives for being so reckless, words he would long remember. (Memoirs, p. 9)

It is hard to view this disconnect as anything less than a failure to truly appreciate and respect her own words. And what an ironic failure, since these published words are what made her so memorable and sealed her status as a literary figure. Intentions may be good, but there are too many shortcuts that give her legacy short shrift, including unnecessary translations from Arabic and reliance on incorrect secondary sources. [5] Some of this even arises from what I would call a misplaced sophistication to improve on the original source.

This last claim I lay squarely at the feet of Lionel Strachey, who issued a purported “translation” with much fanfare in 1907, in which he not only mangled her name (Salamah), but also left out full paragraphs, sections, and even chapters throughout the book, including places where she had used her name – to the point where only one single name (!) of the ten “Salmes” remains. This distorted work was part of a series he called “Memoirs of Charming Women,” a label that sounds rather condescending today. Given that most available English copies of the Memoirs are simply reprints of his revisionist version, you may understand why I was so determined to put forth a more accurate translation – to replace his! [6]

Salme is an unusual name, and perhaps an unusual spelling for a common name, but that should not give license to substitute something else for her own. Few things are more intrinsic to the individual than their own name. Considering that Sayyida Salme had no choice but to take a Christian name at her Christian baptism, which she needed to marry her Christian husband, [7] the least we can do is honor her original name, as she wrote it.

Let history surprise you, let her story inspire you – let her authentic voice speak to you.

Andrea Emily Stumpf, January 22, 2026

[1] Or Sayyida Sālme, Sayyida Salmé bint Said Al-Saidiyah, Emily “Sayyida Salme” Al-Busaidi Ruete, and other assorted combinations.

[2] Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin (1886). Another notable place to find her name is at the top of the custom-made bookcase from 1837, provided by her son Rudolph when he donated his collection of books and other materials to the Oriental Institute in Leiden in The Netherlands. There, in prominent gold, capital letters, it says: Seyyidah Salme (Emily Ruete). For a wonderful description by Anita Keizers, who curated this collection for many years, please enjoy Bookcase with Rudolph Said-Ruete collection - Things That Talk.

[3] Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin, pp. 11, 39, and 148 in Volume 1; pp. 113, 129, 130, 131, 133, 135, and 177 in Volume 2 (in her original German publication), and Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, pp. 9, 25, 90, 185, 193, 194 (twice), 196, 197, and 223 (in my 2022 translated edition).

[4] Strangely, there are even misspellings of her Christian name Emily as “Emilie,” despite official documentation to support the more customary ending with y, in addition to plenty of misspellings of Ruete as “Reute.”

[5] As I say in a prior blog post, legacy is what we make of history. History and Legacy (July 24, 2025) Perhaps not surprisingly, her misspelled name often signals that there are more inaccuracies to follow.

[6] See my second blog post from exactly two years ago: Rescuing Her Voice (January 26, 2024).

[7] This is also the reason I prefer to use her original name (instead of Emily Ruete), as I explain more fully in my introduction to Letters from the Homeland, p. vii.