In 1832[2] or 1840[3] (the date varies among sources), Said bin Sultan moved his capital from Muscat in Oman to Stone Town on Zanzibar.

He established a ruling Arab elite and encouraged the development of clove plantations, using the island's enslaved black Africans as labourers.

[4] Zanzibar's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the island.

His successor, Barghash bin Said, helped abolish the slave trade in Zanzibar and is credited with developing the country's infrastructure.

[7] Until 1886, the sultan of Zanzibar also controlled a substantial portion of the east African coast, known as Zanj, and trading routes that extended further into the continent, as far as Kindu on the Congo River.

[11] Jamshid fled into exile, and the Sultanate was replaced by the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba, a government dominated by Africans.