Saif bin Sultan

Lore & Background

Saif bin Sultan was the son of the second Yaruba Imam, Sultan bin Saif. After his father's death, his brother Bil'arab bin Sultan became Imam in 1679. Saif later fell out with his brother, built up his forces, and besieged Bil'arab in Jabrin. After Bil'arab died there in 1692/93, Saif bin Sultan became Imam.

As Imam, Saif invested in improving agriculture, building aflaj in many parts of the interior to provide water, and planting date palms in the Al Batinah Region to encourage settlement along the coast. He built new schools and made the castle of Rustaq his residence, adding the Burj al Riah wind tower. He continued the struggle against the Portuguese on the East African coast. In 1696, his forces attacked Mombasa, besieging 2,500 people who had taken refuge in Fort Jesus. The Siege of Fort Jesus ended after 33 months when the thirteen survivors of famine and smallpox surrendered. Soon after, the Omanis took Pemba Island, Kilwa, and Zanzibar, leading to the first large-scale settlement of Zanzibar by Omani migrants. Saif bin Sultan appointed Arab governors to the city states of the coast before returning to Oman, though many later came under the control of Muhammed bin Uthman al-Mazrui and his descendants. He also encouraged piracy against the merchant trade of India, Persia, and even Europe.

Saif bin Sultan died on 4 October 1711 and was buried in the castle of Rustaq in a handsome tomb, later destroyed by a Wahhabi general. At his death he had great wealth, said to include 28 ships, 700 male slaves, and one third of Oman's date trees. He was succeeded by his son Sultan bin Saif II. He earned the title 'the Earth's bond' or 'the chain of the Earth' for the benefits he had brought to the people of Oman.

Reader's Guide

Saif bin Sultan's reign marked a peak in Omani power and prosperity, as noted by Samuel Barrett Miles, who called him the greatest of the Yaareba Princes. His investments in agriculture—building aflaj and planting date palms—helped develop the interior and coast, while new schools promoted learning. His military campaigns on the East African coast, including the capture of Fort Jesus after a 33-month siege, established Omani dominance in the region and led to the first large-scale settlement of Zanzibar. However, his appointment of Arab governors later resulted in the Mazrui family asserting near-independence. Saif also encouraged piracy against Indian, Persian, and European trade, which extended Omani commercial reach but also invited conflict. His legacy is complex: he brought internal stability and economic growth, but his methods included piracy and reliance on slave labor. The title 'the Earth's bond' reflects his perceived benefits to Oman, though his tomb was later destroyed by a Wahhabi general, symbolizing the fragility of his achievements.

Did You Know?

• Saif bin Sultan's forces besieged Fort Jesus for 33 months; only thirteen survivors surrendered.
• He owned 28 ships, 700 male slaves, and one third of Oman's date trees at his death.
• He added the Burj al Riah wind tower to the castle of Rustaq, which became his residence.
• His tomb in Rustaq was later destroyed by a Wahhabi general.

Political Power Without a Title

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi occupied a paradoxical position in his father's Libya. Though he publicly declined the second-highest post in the country and never held an official government position, United States State Department officials in Tripoli described him as the second most widely recognized figure in Libya and, at various points, the de facto prime minister. He served within his father's inner circle, handling public relations and diplomatic engagements on Muammar Gaddafi's behalf. By 2015, he was widely acknowledged as the heir apparent, with foreign business interests required to route dealings through him. Yet in an August 2008 speech in Sabha, he insisted that succession was not a matter of inheritance, declaring "this is not a farm to inherit," and pledged to withdraw from state affairs. His reformist leanings put him at odds with his hardline brother Mutassim, and that rivalry sharpened after international sanctions were lifted. In November 2010, his independent newspaper was shut down following a piece calling for a "final assault" on his father's government, and roughly twenty of his allied reporters were detained.

Education, Art, and a Curated Public Image

Born in Tripoli in 1972, Saif al-Islam built an academic résumé that spanned continents. He earned a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Al Fateh University in 1994, though some accounts describe him as an architect. After France and Canada both denied him a student visa, he completed an MBA at the Imadec business school in Vienna, where he formed friendships with OPEC official Shukri Ghanem and Austrian far-right politician Jörg Haider. His arrival in Vienna also saw him granted permission by the city's mayor and the head of Schönbrunn Zoo to keep his pet tigers on the zoo grounds; a white tiger later lived at his farm near Tripoli before, reportedly, being turned into a rug. His artistic side was showcased in "The Desert is Not Silent" (2002–2005), an international Libyan art exhibition whose corporate backers included ABB, Siemens, Petro-Canada, Bombardier, and SNC-Lavalin. In 2005 the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader, and in 2008 he received a PhD from the London School of Economics for a thesis on civil society and global governance—a work that attracted plagiarism accusations and claims of ghostwriting by consultants from Monitor Group, a firm that earned three million dollars annually in fees from his father.

The Long Legal Odyssey

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Saif al-Islam on 27 June 2011, charging him with crimes against humanity under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute for killing and persecuting civilians. He denied the allegations. Following the end of the Libyan Civil War, he was seized by the Zintan militia on 19 November 2011 in southern Libya and flown to Zintan, where he remained in the custody of the de facto local authorities for years. On 28 July 2015, a Tripoli court handed down a death sentence in a trial conducted in absentia that drew widespread criticism. His situation shifted in June 2017 when the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion announced his release from the Zintan prison, and later that month the Tobruk-based government under Khalifa Haftar declared a full amnesty for him. Nevertheless, as of December 2019 the ICC warrant remained active. In November, ahead of the presidential election originally scheduled for December 2021, he attempted to register as a candidate; his application was initially rejected but overturned within a month, reinstating his candidacy just weeks before the vote was indefinitely postponed.

Diplomatic Entanglements and the Wider Network

Beyond the political arena, Saif al-Islam cultivated a web of international connections that reflected both his father's regime and his own ambitions. In 2002 he sued The Sunday Telegraph for libel over a 1995 article alleging he had orchestrated an international money-laundering conspiracy; the case was settled after the intervention of Saudi diplomat Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, with the newspaper publishing an apology and contributing to his legal costs. His charitable and diplomatic footprint extended further: he served as president of the Libyan National Association for Drugs and Narcotics Control and, in 1998, founded the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which intervened in hostage crises involving Islamic militants and played a role in the HIV trial episode that ultimately facilitated European Union–Libyan rapprochement. His Vienna MBA years connected him to OPEC circles and to Austrian politics, while his LSE doctorate was embedded in a series of contacts between the school and the Libyan political establishment, with senior academics at LSE, the University of Southampton, and Harvard acknowledged in the thesis.

Gallery