Salama bint Butti


Sheikha Salama bint Butti was the wife of Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi from 1922, and the mother of Sheikhs Shakhbut and Zayed. Other children include Hazza bin Sultan, who was the Ruler's Representative of the Western Region of the Emirate, and died in 1958.

Life and family

Salamah is believed to be from the family of Al Qubaisi, a prominent Bedouin tribe from Liwa, who also settled Khor Al Udaid. Salamah herself was from Mezairaa in Liwa.
After the assassination of her husband in 1927, she took Zayed from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain, and made her sons swear an oath that they would not kill or fight against each other. In early 1955, her sons Zayed, Hazza and Shakhbut, who was the Ruler of Abu Dhabi at the time, helped to arrange her to return to Abu Dhabi on board a Gulf Air plane. She is stated to have died in October 1970, while Zayed was the Ruler.