Sa‘id

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Sa‘id (also spelled Saeed, Saeid, Said, or Sayid, Arabic: سعيد‎‎, Sa‘īd) is a male Arabic given name meaning "happy". For the female version, see Saida; for the Turkish variant, see Sait; for the Bosnian variant, see Sejad.

The Maltese surname Said, pronounced [saɪt], has the same origin but has been borne by Latin Catholics for over seven centuries. Most Maltese surnames are of Italian origin, but this (with Abdilla) is one of the very few authentically Arabic given names that have survived in the islands as family names. It is a variant of the medieval Sicilian Christian surname Saido, Saito (Saidu) which was derived from the Siculo-Arabic given name Sa'īd used by both Muslims and Christians. In Sicily and Malta this surname was sometimes italianized as (De) Felice. The surname was established in Malta by 1419, appearing mostly as Sayd in the militia list of that year. In the 1480 militia list it is spelt mostly Said, but was later variously written Said, Sayd, Sajt, Sait in the Catholic church census of 1687. The anachronistic and undocumented claim that 'Nicolò Sayd', a grandson of Cem (1459–1496, the renegade son of Turkish Sultan Mehmet II) settled in Malta and became the ancestor of all Maltese bearing the surname Said is a fantasy inspired by the writings of historical novelists Maurice Caron and John Freely and recently promoted by amateur genealogists.

Today, francophone countries use transliterations of that name. These include the names Seydoux and Seydou, common in Europe and West Africa, respectively.

Given name

• Saeed bin Zaid (593–673), one of the companions of Muhammed
• Sa'id ibn Jubayr (665–714), one of the leading Tabi‘un
• Sultan Said Khan, ruler of Kashgaria in 1514–1533
• Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman (1797–1856)
• Sa'id of Egypt (or Sa'id Pasha, 1822–1863), Ottoman Viceroy and Egyptian ruler for whom Port Said is named
• Mehmed Said Pasha (or Said Pasha, 1830–1914), Ottoman Grand Vizier
• Said Nursî (1878–1960), Muslim Scholar from Turkey
• Saeed Akhtar Mirza (born 1943), Indian film director
• Saeed Abubakr Zakaria, 21st-century Ghanaian scholar and leading member of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaa'a
• Saïd Taghmaoui (born 1973), French actor
• Saeid Bayat (born 1976), Iranian football midfielder
• Saeid Ebrahimi (born 1982), Iranian wrestler
• Saeid Marouf (born 1985), volleyball player from Iran
• Said Shavershian (born 1986), Australian bodybuilder, older brother of Aziz Shavershian, aka Zyzz
• Saeid Davarpanah (born 1987), Iranian professional basketball player
• Saeid Alihosseini (born 1988), Iranian weightlifter
• Saeed Ajmal, Pakistani cricketer
• Said Salim Bakhresa, Tanzanian businessman
• Said Bahaji, German al-Qaeda member
• Saeed al-Ghamdi, Saudi Arabian hijacker of United Airlines Flight 93 in the September 11 attacks
• Saeed Hanaei, Iranian serial killer
• Sa'id Hormozi, Iranian musician
• Saeed al-Masri, Egyptian al-Qaeda member
• Saeed Nafisi, Iranian scholar
• Saeed Naqvi, Indian journalist
• Saeid Pirdoost, Iranian actor
• Said Sheikh Samatar, Somali historian
• Said Ali al-Shihri, Saudi Arabian al-Qaeda member

Abu Sa‘id

• Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr (967–1049), Persian Sufi and poet
• Abu Sa'id (Ilkhanid dynasty) (1316–1335), ninth ruler of the Ilkhanate state in Iran
• Abu Sa'id (Timurid dynasty) (1424–1469), mid-fifteenth century Timurid Empire ruler in what are today parts of Persia and Afghanistan
• Khaled al-Hassan (1928–1994), known as Abu Said, Palestine Liberation Organization leader

Surname

• Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, leader of the Algerian trade union UGTA
• Abdulla Saeed (born 1964), chief justice of the Maldives
• Agha Saeed, chairman of the American Muslim Alliance
• Amina Said (born 1953), poet
• Anjum Saeed (born 1968), Pakistani field hockey player
• Boris Said (born 1962), American race car driver
• Brian Said (born 1973), Maltese footballer
• Edward Said (1935–2003), Palestinian-American literary critic and theorist
• Kurban Said, pseudonym for the author of the novel Ali and Nino
• Hakim Said (1920–1998), Pakistani physician and scholar
• Raymond Saeed, apostolic administrator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Multan, Pakistan
• Samira Said (born 1961), Moroccan pop star
• Wafic Saïd (born 1939), Syrian businessman
• Ali Said Raygal, Somali politician

Fictional characters

• Sayid Jarrah, character on the television series Lost
• Kareem Saïd, character on the HBO drama Oz

Other uses

• Sa'idi people refers to the inhabitants of Upper Egypt. The Egyptian geographic term is spelled with a Ṣād (صعيد). The personal name is related to a different root, whose first letter is Sīn.
• Saïd Business School at Oxford University, name after Wafic Saïd

See also

• Sheikh Said (disambiguation)
• Syed, similar name with different pronunciation