The stud of Sheykh Muhammad B. Salman Aal Khalifah in Bahrain includes representatives of an Arabian horse strain by the name of “Sa’idan”, of which one impressive representative is the stallion pictured below, Saidan Gharib. The photo from the 1998 WAHO Convention in Bahrain. While the strain sounds very similar to the strain of Saadan (as in Saadan Tuqan, the strain of, among others, the mare Francolin imported by the Blunts) they are not the same, and are not written in the same way in Arabic. It seems that the Bahraini “Saidan” strain gots its name after a Sultan of Oman, Sultan Said bin Sultan. Saidan is reference to Said. Here is a quote from the Bahraini studbook volume 1: “The Kuheilah Sai’da strain is a family of horse peculiar to Bahrain. The oft told story of how the name came about is still repeated in gatherings when men discuss horses of old and their merits. In the early 19th century the Al-Khalifas had to repel many invaders to ascertain their supremacy in Bahrain. In the year 1816, in one of the attempts to overtake the islands by the forces of the Sultan of Muscat, Said bin Sultan, a big battle…