[1] The daughter of King Yusuf of Zanzibar her father's territory of Unguja was split into two, a southern kingdom ruled by her brother Bakari bin Yusuf from Kizimkazi and a northern kingdom ruled by Fatuma from the site of modern-day Zanzibar City.
[2][3] Fatuma married her cousin Abdullah, King of the Utondwe, a Swahili kingdom on the African coast opposite Zanzibar.
[1] Queen Fatuma ruled in a period of transition in East Africa from the colonial Portuguese to the rising power of Oman.
Fatuma remained loyal to the Portuguese, attempting to resupply Fort Jesus, in Mombasa (modern Kenya) before its fall to the Omanis in the 1696–98 siege.
[1][7] The Omanis kept one of the three cannons in the Old Fort trained on Fatuma's palace to enforce her compliance and prevent her from communicating with the Portuguese in Mozambique.