Thepan-Arab colors areblack,white,green andred. Individually, each of the four pan-Arab colors were intended to represent a certain aspect of theArab people and their history.[1]
The four colors derive their potency from a verse by 14th century Arab poetSafi al-Din al-Hilli: "White are our acts, black our battles, green our fields, and red our swords".[3] The black is theBlack Standard, which was used by theRashidun andAbbasid Caliphate, while white was the dynastic color of theUmayyad Caliphate.[4] Green is a color associated withIslam, the primary religion of Arabs.[5][6] Green is also identified as the color of theFatimid Caliphate by some modern sources,[4][7] despite their dynastic color having been white.[8][9][10] Finally, red was used as theHashemite dynastic color.
^Abū KhaldūnSati' al-Husri,The days of Maysalūn: A Page from the Modern History of the Arabs, Sidney Glauser Trans. (Washington D.C.: Middle East Institute, 1966), 46.
^abTeitelbaum, Joshua (2001).The rise and fall of the Hashimite kingdom of Arabia. New York: New York University Press. p. 205.ISBN1-85065-460-3.OCLC45247314.
^abMarshall, Tim (2017).A flag worth dying for : the power and politics of national symbols. New York, NY: Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. pp. 110–111.ISBN978-1-5011-6833-8.OCLC962006347.
^Blair, Sheila S.; Bloom, Jonathan M. (1999). "Art and Architecture: Themes and Variations". InEsposito, John L. (ed.).The Oxford History of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 215–267.ISBN0-19-510799-3....white was also the color associated with the Fatimid caliphs, the opponents of the Abbasids.
^Sanders, Paula A. (1994).Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid Cairo. SUNY series in Medieval Middle East History. SUNY Press. p. 44.ISBN0-7914-1781-6....wore white (the Fatimid color) while delivering the sermon (khuṭba) in the name of the Fatimid caliph.
^abZnamierowski, Alfred (2003).Illustrated Book of Flags. Southwater. p. 123.ISBN1-84215-881-3. RetrievedNovember 22, 2014.The designs of these flags were later modified, but the four pan-Arab colors were retained and were adopted by Transjordan (1921), Palestine (1922), Kuwait (1961), the United Arab Emirates (1971), Western Sahara (1976) and Somaliland (1996).
^The contrast of white vs. black as the Fatimid/Umayyad vs. Abbasid dynastic color over time developed in white as the color of Shia Islam and black as the color of Sunni Islam: "The proselytes of the ʿAbbasid revolution took full advantage of the eschatological expectations raised by black banners in their campaign to undermine the Umayyad dynasty from within. Even after the ʿAbbasids had triumphed over the Umayyads in 750, they continued to deploy black as their dynastic color; not only the banners but the headdresses and garments of the ʿAbbasid caliphs were black [...] The ubiquitous black created a striking contrast with the banners and dynastic color of the Umayyads, which had been white [...] The Ismaili Shiʿite counter-caliphate founded by the Fatimids took white as its dynastic color, creating a visual contrast to the ʿAbbasid enemy [...] white became the Shiʿite color, in deliberate opposition to the black of the ʿAbbasid 'establishment'." Jane Hathaway,A Tale of Two Factions: Myth, Memory, and Identity in Ottoman Egypt and Yemen, 2012,p. 97f.
^TheAbbasid Revolution against theUmayyad Caliphate adopted black for itsrāyaʾ for which their partisans were called themusawwids.Tabari (1995), Jane McAuliffe (ed.),Abbāsid Authority Affirmed, vol. 28, SUNY, p. 124