AnIslamic flag is theflag representing an Islamiccaliphate, religious order, state, civil society, military force or other entity associated with Islam. Islamic flags have a distinct history due to theIslamic prescription on aniconism, making particular colours, inscriptions or symbols such ascrescent-and-star popular choices. Since the time of theIslamic prophetMuhammad, flags with certain colours were associated with Islam according to the traditions. Since then, historical caliphates, modernnation states, certain denominations as well as religious movements have adopted flags to symbolize their Islamic identity. Some secular states and ethnic or national movements also use symbols of Islamic origin as markers of heritage and identity.
Before the advent of Islam, banners as tools for signaling had already been employed by thepre-Islamic Arab tribes and theByzantines.Early Muslim armies naturally deployed banners for the same purpose.[1] Early Islamic flags, however, greatly simplified its design by using plain color, due to the Islamic prescriptions on aniconism.[2] According to the Islamic traditions, theQuraysh had a black banner and a white-and-black banner.[3] It further states that Muhammad had a banner in white nicknamed "the Young Eagle" (Arabic:العقاب,al-ʿuqāb); and a flag in black, said to be made from his wifeAisha's head-cloth.[4] This larger flag was known as the "Banner of the Eagle" (Arabic:الراية العقاب,romanized: al-rāyat al-ʿuqāb), as well as the "Black Banner" (Arabic:الراية السوداء,romanized: al-rāyat as-sawdāʾ).[5] In the Islamic tradition, Muhammad used the white flag to represent both the leader of the Muslim army and the Muslim state.[6] Other examples are the prominent Arab military commander'Amr ibn al-'As using a red banner,[7] and theKhawarij rebels using a red banner as well.[8] Banners of the early Muslim armies in general, however, employed a variety of colors, both singly and in combination.[9]
TheUmayyad Caliphate, which ruled the largest geographical extent of the medieval Islamic Empire,[10] adopted white flags.[11] During theAbbasid Revolution, the Abbasids incorporated the Black Standard based on theearly Islamic eschatologicalsaying that "a people coming from the East with black banners" would herald the arrival of the messianic figureMahdi.[12] TheShiiteAlids chose the color of white to distinguish themselves from the Abbasids,[8] but also adoptedgreen flags.[11] Thus in 817, when the Abbasid caliphal-Ma'mun adopted the AlidAli al-Ridha as his heir apparent, he also changed the dynastic color from black to green. The change was reverted when al-Ma'mun had Ali killed, and returned toBaghdad in 819.[13] The Abbasids continued to use black as their dynastic color. However, their caliphal banner was made of white silk with theQuranic inscriptions. The white color was then adopted, in deliberate opposition to the Abbasids, by theIsmaili ShiiteFatimid Caliphate, and cemented the association of black and white withSunni and Shia respectively.[14] It was also used by theAlmohads.[15] The Fatimid caliphal banner was decorated in red and yellow, sometimes emblazoned with the picture of a lion.[14] Early Muslim rulers are generally not known to have used emblems of a distinctly dynastic, religious, or personal nature.[16]
TheAyyubids andMamluks, succeeding the Fatimid caliphate, retained the association with yellow. The Ayyubid founderSaladin carried a yellow flag adorned with an eagle. Mamluk sultanic banners were yellow, but on occasion they used red banners.[14]Mongol and Turkic dynasties to the east, including theIlkhanate,Oghuz Turks and theSeljuq dynasty, preferred the white banner.[17] Religious flags with inscriptions were in use in the medieval period, as shown in miniatures by 13th-century illustratorYahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti. 14th-century illustrations of theHistory of the Tatars byHayton of Corycus (1243) shows bothMongols and Seljuqs using a variety of war ensigns.
Thecrescent appears in flags attributed toTunis from as early as the 14th centuryBook of Knowledge of All Kingdoms, long before Tunis fell under Ottoman rule in 1574. The Spanish Navy Museum in Madrid shows two Ottoman naval flags dated 1613; both are swallow-tailed, one green with a white crescent near the hoist, the other white with two red stripes near the edges of the flag and a red crescent near the hoist.[18][unreliable source]
Thehexagram was also a popular symbol among the Islamic flags. It is known in Arabic asKhātem Sulaymān (Seal of Solomon;خاتم سليمان) orNajmat Dāūd (Star of David;نجمة داوود). The "Seal of Solomon" may also be represented by a five-pointed star orpentagram. In theQur'an, it is written that David andKing Solomon (Arabic,Suliman orSulayman) were prophets and kings, and are figures revered by Muslims. The Medieval pre-OttomanHanafiAnatolian beyliks of theKaramanids andJandarids used the star on their flag.[19][full citation needed]
The Mamluks served theCustodian of the Two Holy Mosques during their reign. During this time, they deployed what was believed to be the genuine relic of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's banner. The banner was later captured by the Ottomans, who called the flag the "noble banner" (Sancak-ı Şerif) and used it during their military campaign. The flag was made of black wool, according to the Ottoman historianSilahdar Findiklili Mehmed Agha, but there is no further information available.[20]
War flags came into use by theOttoman Empire in the 16th century, gradually replacing (but long coexisting with) their traditionaltugh or horse-tail standards. During the 16th and 17th centuries, war flags often depicted the bifurcated sword ofAli,Zulfiqar, which was often misinterpreted in Western literature as showing a pair ofscissors.[21] A Zulfiqar flag used bySelim I (d. 1520) is on exhibit inTopkapı Palace.[22] Two Zulfiqar flags are also depicted in a plate dedicated to Turkish flags in vol. 7 ofBernard Picart'sCérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (1737), attributed to theJanissaries andSipahis.
Tanzimat of 1844, theflags of the Ottoman Empire were redesigned in the style of European armies of the day. The flag of theOttoman Navy was made red as red was to be the flag of secular institutions and green of religious ones. As the reforms abolished all the various sub-sultanates, pashaliks, beyliks and emirates, a single new flag was designed to replace all the various flags used by these entities with one single national flag. The result was the red and white flag with the crescent moon and star, which is the precursor to the modern Turkish flag. A plain red flag was introduced as thecivil ensign for all Ottoman subjects.
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TheMughal Empire had a number of imperial flags and standards. The principal imperial standard of the Mughals was known as thealam (Alamعلم). It was primarilymoss green.[23] It displayed alion and sun (Shir-u-khurshidشیر و خورشید) facing the hoist of the flag.[24] The Mughals traced their use of thealam back toTimur.[25] The imperial standard was displayed to the right of the throne and also at the entrance of the Emperor's encampment and in front of the emperor during military marches.[25]
According to theAin-i-Akbari, duringAkbar's reign, whenever the emperor rode out, not less than fivealams were carried along with thequr (a collection of flags and other insignia) wrapped up in scarlet cloth bags. They were unfurled on the days of festivity, and in battle.[26]Edward Terry, chaplain to SirThomas Roe, who came during the reign ofJahangir, described in hisVoyage to East-India (1655) that the royal standard, made of silk, with a crouching lion shadowing part of the body of the sun inscribed on it, was carried on an elephant whenever the emperor travelled.[27][28]
TheSafavid dynasty (1501–1736) employed variousalams and banners, especially during the reign of the first two kings, each with a different emblem.Ismail I, the first Safavid king, designed a green flag with a golden full moon. In 1524Tahmasp I replaced the moon with an emblem of a sheep and sun; this flag was used until 1576. It was then thatIsmail II adopted the first Lion and Sun device, embroidered in gold, which was to remain in use until the end of the Safavid era. During this period the Lion and Sun stood for two pillars of the society: the state and Islam.
TheAfsharid dynasty (1736–1796) had two royal standards, one with red, white, and blue stripes and one with red, blue, white, and yellow stripes.Nader Shah's personal flag was a yellow pennant with a red border and a lion and sun emblem in the centre. All three of these flags were triangular in shape.[30][31]Nader Shah consciously avoided the using the colour green, as green was associated withShia Islam and theSafavid dynasty.[32]
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Muhammad Ahmad declared himself al-Mahdī al-Muntaẓar (the Expected Rightly-guided One, successor to the prophet Mohammed) in 1881 and lead an Islamic revolution against the Ottoman-Egyptian rule of Sudan until his death in 1885.[33] During theMahdist War, the followers of al-Mahdi (Anṣār or ‘helpers’) adapted a traditional form of flag used in prayer by followers of Sufi religious orders, for military purposes.[34] Sufi flags typically feature the Muslimshahada – “There is no God butGod; Muḥammad is God’s Messenger” – and the name of the sect's founder, an individual usually regarded as a saint.[34] The traditional form of Sufi flag was adapted by adding a quotation from the Quran – “Yā allah yā ḥayy yā qayūm yā ḍhi’l-jalāl wa’l-ikrām” (O God! O Ever-living, O Everlasting, O Lord of Majesty and Generosity) – and the highly charged claim - “Muḥammad al-Mahdī khalifat rasūl Allah” (Muḥammad al-Mahdī is the successor of God's messenger). The flags were specifically colour coded to direct soldiers of the three main divisions of the Mahdist army – the Black, Green and Red Banners (rāyāt).
By the mid 20th century, the star and crescent was used by a number successor states of the Ottoman Empire, includingAlgeria,Azerbaijan,Mauritania,Tunisia,Turkey,the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus andLibya. Because of its supposed "Turkic" associations, the symbol also came to be used inCentral Asia, as in the flags ofTurkmenistan andUzbekistan.The star-and-crescent in theFlag of Pakistan is stated as symbolizing "progress and light" (while the green colour is stated asrepresenting Islam). The star-and-crescent in these flags was not originally intended as religious symbolism, but an association of the symbol with Islam seems to have developed beginning in the 1950s or 1960s.[35]By the 1970s, this symbol was embraced by bothArab nationalism orIslamism, such as the proposedArab Islamic Republic (1974) and the AmericanNation of Islam (1973).[36]
ThePan-Arab colors were first introduced in 1916, with theFlag of the Arab Revolt. Although they represent secularArab nationalism as opposed to Islamism, the choice of colours has been explained by Islamic symbolism in retrospect, so by Mahdi Abdul Hadi inEvolution of the Arab Flag (1986): black as theBlack Standard of Muhammad, theRashidun Caliphate and theAbbasid Caliphate, white as the flag of theUmayyad Caliphate, green as the flag of theFatimid Caliphate and red as the flag of theKhawarij. On 30 1917Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, leader of theArab Revolt replaced his plain red flag with one horizontally striped in black, green, and white with a red triangular area at the hoist. This was seen as the birth of thepan-Arab flag. Since that time, many Arab nations, upon achieving independence or upon change of political regime, have used a combination of these colours in a design reflecting theHejaz Revolt flag. These flags include the current flags ofIraq,Syria,Yemen,Egypt,Kuwait,United Arab Emirates,Jordan,Palestinian National Authority,Algeria, andSudan, and formerflags of Iraq andLibya.
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The modern conceptualization of theIslamic state is attributed toAbul A'la Maududi (1903–1979), a Pakistani Muslim theologian who founded the political partyJamaat-e-Islami and inspired other Islamic revolutionaries such asRuhollah Khomeini. Six internationally recognized states identify as Islamic states: Saudi Arabia (formed 1932 out of the Wahhabistpredecessor states),Pakistan (since 1947),Mauritania (since 1958), Iran (since 1979),Yemen (since 1991). The majority of countries of theArab world define Islam as theirstate religion. Most of these states have national flags that include Islamic symbolism. Besides these, there have been unrecognized jihadist de facto states, such as theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant which at one time controlled parts of Iraq and Syria, the unrecognized government of theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan, andAl-Shabaab andBoko Haram ruling parts of Somalia and Nigeria respectively, which usejihadist flags.
Some flags of Muslim states use inscribed flags, either with theshahada, as inthe flags ofSaudi Arabia, or in the case of the 1979 Islamic Republic ofIran, stylized writing of the wordAllah. Theflag of Iraq uses the pan-Arab colours since 1921, with the addition of the takbir since 1991. The practice of inscribing the shahada on flags may go back to the 18th century, used by theWahhabi religious movement.[38] In 1902Ibn Saud, leader of theHouse of Saud and the future founder of the Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia, added a sword to this flag.[38] The current flag of Saudi Arabia is a continuation of the flag of theEmirate of Nejd and Hasa introduced in 1902. TheFirst East Turkestan Republic of 1933 used it on their flag, and theTaliban introduced it on theirflag of Afghanistan in 1997.
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Although a flag representing Islam as a whole does not exist, some Islamic denominational branches andSufi brotherhoods employ flags to symbolize themselves. Among specific Islamic branches,Nizari branch ofIsmaili-Shia Islam employs an official flag made of green which represents Muhammad's standard and Ali's cloak, as well as a red stripe meaning blood and fire. The flag was ordained by theAga Khan IV as a part of the new constitution in 1986. The flag is flown on theIsmaili Jamatkhana, a place for congregational worship for Ismaili Muslims during the festive occasions.[40] TheAhmadiyya movement also employs an official flag (Liwaa-i Ahmadiyya) with black and white colors, first hoisted in 1939.[41]Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the fourth caliph of theAhmadiyya Caliphate, explained the symbolism of the colours black and white in terms of the concept of revelation and prophethood.[42] MuslimAfrican-American religious movementNation of Islam deploys an official flag known as "The Flag of Islam" which symbolizes universal peace and harmony.[43] Some Muslim communities organized on a national basis by official corporate bodies that have specific denominational commitments, such as theIslamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina or theChief Muftiate (Главно мюфтийство) of Bulgaria, also have flags.
In Shia Muslim traditions, flags are a significant part of the rituals for theMourning of Muharram. Mourners take round the flags or banners in the ritual known asAlam Gardani as a performance for the mourning ceremonies. Mourners also use flags to signal the beginning and the end of the mourning. All flags have guardians and they are passed down through generations.[44]
primarilymoss green and some flags were scarlet. Against a green field it displayed a rising sun, partially eclipsed by a body of a couching lion facing the hoist
Black absorbs total light, [it] does not emit an iota of light, so from looking heavenly-wards black indicates that we absorb entire light from heaven, and white reflects total light without being dishonest about it, so a Messenger has two aspects. One of receiving things from Allah, in that respect he'snabi [prophet], whatever he receives he completely, totally absorbs, and when he speaks to the others he reflects the entire light without being dishonest or stingy about it, so that reflection makes it white. So reception that is a complete reception without leaving anything out and reflection that is a complete reflection without leaving anything out, they are witnessed only in two colours: black and white. So both have been employed in Islam as flags.
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