Edward Wadie Saïd MRSL (Arabic: إدوارد وديع سعيد‎, Idwārd Wadīʿ Saʿīd; 1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003) was a Palestinian American literary theorist, cultural critic and political activist, particularly as an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism. During his lifetime he was referred to as Palestine's "most powerful political voice".

Said was born in Jerusalem (then in the British Mandate of Palestine) on November 1, 1935. His father was a US citizen with Protestant Palestinian origins who had moved to Cairo in the decade before Edward's birth. His father was a businessman and had served under General Pershing in World War I, while his mother was born in Nazareth, also of Protestant Christian Palestinian descent. His sister was the historian and writer Rosemarie Said Zahlan.

Said once referred to himself as a "Christian wrapped in a Muslim culture":