The Arabic inscription on the flag, written in the calligraphicThuluth Script, is theshahada orIslamic declaration of faith:
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا الله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ الله
lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāh, muḥammadun rasūlu-llāh
'There is no god but God;Muhammad is the Messenger of God.'[4]
The flag's green represents Islam, and the sword stands for safety and justice.[5]
The flag is manufactured with identicalobverse and reverse sides, to ensure theshahada reads correctly, from right to left, from either side. The sword also points to the left on both sides, in the direction of the script.[6]
The flag of Saudi Arabia is never flown at half-mast as a sign of respect towards the holiness of the shahada, the sacred creed depicted on the flag.
Because theshahada is considered holy, the flag is not normally used on T-shirts or other items. Saudi Arabia protested against its inclusion on a plannedfootball to be issued byFIFA, bearing all the flags of the participants of the2002 FIFA World Cup. Saudi Arabian officials said that abusing the shahada was completely unacceptable and sacrilegious. Similarly, an attempt by theU.S. military to win favour with children of theKhost Province ofAfghanistan by distributing footballs adorned with flags, including that of Saudi Arabia, ended in demonstrations.[9]
The normal flag cannot be hoisted vertically according to Saudi legislation. Special vertical flags are manufactured where both the inscription (the creed) and the emblem (the sword) are rotated, although this is rare, as most Arab countries traditionally do not hoist flags vertically.
The precursor states to Saudi Arabia wereNejd andHejaz. The state flag of Nejd followed today's Saudi flag pattern very closely. The state of Hejaz followed the patterns seen in countries likePalestine andSudan. Caliphs such asRashiduns,Umayyads andAbbasids used different colors, inscriptions and symbols. After theSiege of Baghdad in 1258, the primary caliphate became theMamluk Sultanate. In 1517, theOttomans invaded Egypt and inherited Hejaz and ruled it until theArab Revolt (1916–18). From 1902 until 1921 a different Arabic inscription was used. One of the primary opponents to the Saudis was theEmirate of Jabal Shammar of theAl Rashid family in the north of the peninsula, until their defeat in 1921.
TheAl Saud, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, has long been closely related withMuhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. He and the people who followed him, since the 18th century, had used theshahada on their flags.[12] In 1921,Abdulaziz Abdulrahman Al-Saud, leader of the Al Saud and the future founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, added a sword to this flag.[12] Variants with two swords and/or a white vertical stripe at the hoist were frequently used. By 1938, the flag had basically assumed its present form, except the sword had a different design (with a more curved blade) and it, along with theshahada above, took up more of the flag's space.
The design of the flag was not standardized prior to 15 March 1973 when its use became official.[13]
The Royal Standard consists of a green flag, with anArabic inscription and a sword featured in white, and with thenational emblem embroidered in gold in the lower right canton of the year 1973.
The script on the flag is written in theThuluth script. It is theshahada or Islamic declaration of faith:
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا الله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ الله
lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāh, muhammadun rasūlu-llāh
There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God[14]
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