Cheikh Saïd

Cheikh Saïd (frequently spelled Sheikh Said) is a rocky peninsula in Yemen, near the island of Perim on the Bab-el-Mandeb at the entrance to the Red Sea.

In 1868 it was purchased from the local ruler, Sheikh Ali Tabet Ahmed, by Bazin et Rabaud, a private company based in Marseille in France, which wanted to use it as a base for exporting coffee.

"[1] Although as late as 1970, the Petit Larousse described it as having been a "French colony from 1868 to 1936", France never claimed formal jurisdiction or sovereignty over it.

In the days before World War I the Ottoman Empire maintained a small fort here guarding the entrance to the Red Sea.

When Great Britain went to war with the Ottoman Empire in 1914, a landing was made from the armoured cruiser HMS Duke of Edinburgh which captured the fort and blew it up.

Map of the Territory of Cheik-Said (Cheikh Said, Sheikh Said) drawn by the geographical service of the French periodical La dépêche coloniale (23 May 1919 issue).