Sayyid Said died at sea in 1856, his sons split Oman and Zanzibar, and his daughter Salme was refused her inheritance

Sayyid Said bin Sultan ruled Oman and Zanzibar and had 36 children^†. He died at sea on the passage from Oman to Zanzibar in October 1856. His son Barghash brought the body ashore in a coffin, buried it, and had troops surround the house of his brother Majid. The attempt failed. Majid, who governed Zanzibar, proclaimed himself ruler the next morning. Thuwaini, the eldest son, held Muscat and never recognised him. Through British mediation Majid agreed to pay Thuwaini an annual sum. The Governor-General of India, Lord Canning, ruled in 1861 that the empire would be two sultanates, with 40,000 Maria Theresa thalers a year due from Zanzibar^†. Said's private estate was divided under Islamic law. His daughter Salme wrote that "each of the sisters received in consequence only half of what fell to the share of our brothers." In 1866 Salme fled Zanzibar on a British ship, pregnant by the German merchant Heinrich Ruete. She was baptised, married him at Aden in 1867, and took the name Emily Ruete. He died in 1870, and her claims to her Zanzibar property were refused. In 1885 she went back while a German naval squadron was in the harbour. She wrote that Sultan Barghash offered 6,000 rupees, which she declined, and that she had "not received a penny." She died in Jena, Germany, in 1924. Oman and Zanzibar remained separate states.