Historic flags of Islam

Last modified: 2025-11-22 by rob raeside
Keywords: islam |
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• Evolution of Islamic flags
  • The Flag of Quraish
  • The Flag of Constantinople (Istanbul)
  • The Flags of the Islamic Era

See also:

• Islamic flags
• Organization of Islamic conference
• Flag of the Islamic Khilafah
• Sufism (Indian Sufic Brotherhood)
• Hizb ut-Tahrir (worldwide Islamic party)
• Bektashi Dervishes
• Ahmadiyya Muslims
• Muslim flags in Kolkata
• Nation of Islam

• The Flag of Quraish
• The Flag of Constantinople (Istanbul)

When the democratic government was established in Makkah by Qusa bin Kalab [ancestor of Holy Prophet], he distributed different functions of government into different clans of Quraish. According to various sources these functions or ministries were between 10 to 17. There were two ministries of flag carrying; Al-Lawae (war standard) and Al-Uqaab (national flag).

There is no evidence in the recorded history about the war flag or Al-Lawae looked like and what was its color. Bani Abdul Al-Daar managed this function and it ceased its existence, when all of the 10 men capable to carry Al-Lawae were killed, in Battle of Uhad.

The national flag or Al-Uqaab was carried by Bani-Ummaiya. Its color was black. The same name, i.e. Al-Uqaab, was used by Prophet for the Islamic Flag.
Syed Junaid Imam, 6 September 1999

Flags of the Arab tribes and Muslim Cities present during the Battle of Siffin (657 AD) have been presented in:

Studies in Early Islamic History, by Martin Hinds, a collection of all of Martin Hinds' (1941-1988) full-length articles which appeared in journals as well as one of his articles for the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd Edition.
See: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books
Edited by Jere Bacharach, Lawrence I. Conrad, Patricia Crone
Introduction by G. R. Hawting
Publisher:Gerlach Books
Online publication date:September 2025
Print publication year: 2021
Online ISBN: 9783959940979
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9783959940979

One of the articles is entitled: The Banners and Battle Cries of the Arabs at Ṣiffīn (A.D. 657).
See: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books

The Battle of Siffin was fought in 657 CE (37 AH) between the Iraqi Arab forces of the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib who ruled from Kufa, and the Syrian Arab forces of the rebelling governor of the Levant, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan. The battle is named after its location Siffin on the banks of the Euphrates river.

"THERE ARE at present two known manuscript copies of a work which adds considerably to our knowledge of the confrontation at Ṣiffīn in 657 between ‘Alī and Mu'āwiya. Each of the copies is incomplete, and neither the name of the work nor that of its compiler can be determined. Much of the material in it tallies with material given in the most recent published version of the Waq'at Ṣiffīn by Naṣr b. Muzāḥim al-Minqarī (d. 212/827). [.....]
The purpose of this article is to present, after some discussion of the provenance of this work, a particularly intriguing section entitled:
Dhikr al-ta ‘biya al-thāniya-ta ‘biyat al-~arb-bi-Ṣiffīn (A mention of the second disposition-the war disposition-at Ṣiffīn) , which, in the course of describing the field dispositions at Ṣiffīn, provides us not only with further evidence of the names of groups and leaders who were present there, but also with their battle cries and with illustrations and fairly precise details of their banners."

Thanks to the research of Martin Hinds, we know a little more about what could have been the Raya of the Quraysh (Muhammad's old tribe and the tribe of Caliph Ali) and the Liwa of the Quraysh, flown by the Caliph Ali to represent the Quraysh (Muhammad's old tribe). The banners reconstructed after this source can be seen here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/mkbfzl/flags_of_the_arab_tribes_and_muslim_cities/
See too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_cavalry#Military_standard

Before the advent of Islam, banners as tools for signaling had already been employed by the pre-Islamic Arab tribes and the Byzantines. Early Muslim army naturally deployed banners for the same purpose. Early Islamic flags, however, greatly simplified its design by using plain color, due to the Islamic prescriptions on aniconism. According to the Islamic traditions, the Quraysh had a black liwāʾ and a white-and-black rāya.
[source: Martin Hinds, Studies in Early Islamic History]

It further states that Muhammad had an ʿalam (flag) in white nicknamed "the Young Eagle" (Arabic: العقاب al-ʿuqāb); and a rāya in black, said to be made from his wife Aisha's head-cloth. [source: Nicolle, David (2017-03-02). "Horse Armour in the Medieval Islamic Middle East". Arabian Humanities. International Journal of Archaeology and Social Sciences in the Arabian Peninsula.] This larger flag was known as "the Banner of the Eagle" (Arabic: الراية العقاب al-rāyat al-ʻuqāb), as well as "the Black Banner" (Arabic: الراية السوداء ar-rāyat as-sawdāʾ). [source: Martin Hinds, Studies in Early Islamic History].

   images located by Olivier Touzeau, 24 October 2025

Quraysh banners of the early Islamic times, drawings by MWahaiibii on Wikipedia - Based on David Nicolle "Armies of the Muslim Conquest" illustrations by Angus McBride. And Martin Hinds "The Banners and Battle Cries of the Arabs at Siffin" Al-Abhath XXIV.
See flags #5 and #6 at https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/mkbfzl/flags_of_the_arab_tribes_and_muslim_cities/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quraysh_Flag_, 5
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quraysh_Liwa%27_, 6
 
Olivier Touzeau, 24 October 2025

The Flag of Constantinopleh3>

Constantinople or present Istanbul was the capital of Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. Before Christ it was once sieged by Goths, when the Romans defeated the Goths, it was first of the lunar month. Therefore, to remember this occasion they added the new crescent on the city flag. Later, the direction of the crescent was inverted because the new crescent faces the pole side of the flag and looked odd. During the course of centuries, this crescent bearing flag spread all over Anatolia (Asian Turkey). Turkic tribes of Central Asia embraced Islam and their different tribes spread westward conquering heartlands of Asia Minor, including parts of Anatolia. Hence, when Ottomans became caliphs their flag was red colored with a green circle in the center and three yellow crescents all facing the right side. Then they altered the flag (this will be discussed in later part of this article).
Syed Junaid Imam, 6 September 1999

The Flags of the Islamic Era

Now let's see which flags were used in different era:

Era of the Prophet

Islam has not symbolized itself with any particular object or symbol, but due to political reasons a flag was required to give a standard for Muslims, especially during the wars. The Prophet used flags of different colors in different Ghazwat (campaigns commanded by the Prophet) and Saraya (campaign commanded by any Sahabi). The major flag of the Prophet was known as "Al- Uqaab", it was pure black with and without symbol or marking. Its name and color was derived from Quraish's national flag.

Other minor flags were known as Al-Raya, the most important flag between them was white, others were red, yellow, and perhaps green and zebra-striped.
Syed Junaid Imam, 6 September 1999

Al- Uqaab was actually with markings, the one mostly used by Muslims and the prophet was either of these two:

image located by Anon, 24 April 2015
Source: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5AiVM5_D_ho/hqdefault.jpg

image by Juan Manuel Gabino

It was also known as the flag of unity (literal translation from Arabic: flag of Tawheed). You can also google "flag of Tawheed" for more information. The flag is used today by some extremist groups, wanting to imitate the prophet's flag.
Anon, 24 April 2015

Al-Rashida

Ummayyads

An authentic statement about the Ummaya flag is not available, however perhaps they used a white flag because this was also used by Ummayads of Spain later, giving me the feeling that this flag may be a memory of their glorious empire.
Syed Junaid Imam, 6 September 1999

Caliphate of Abdullah Bin Zubair

Abbasids

Fatmids of North Africa

Fatmids ruled most of the North Africa and for some time parts of West Asia. Fatmids belonged to Ismaili sect of Shiites (Shias). They claimed to be descendant of Ali, which has never been accepted by authentic sources. They used a green colored flag as being part house of Ali.
Syed Junaid Imam, 6 September 1999

image located by Jakub Grombiř, 24 February 2011

At Wikipedia is this flag of the Fatemid Caliphate, the Arabic state which existed in the 10th and 11th centuries. It was centered in Cairo and ruled by the Shiite dynasty of Tunisian origin. At its peak it consisted of Northern Africa, the Levant and the Hijaz with 5 million km2 and more than 60 million people it was one of greatest empires at peoples history. The flag is described as a green oblong with a black crescent and star. Indeed, I am not sure if we could speak about flags in contemporary meaning at the Middle Age.
Jakub Grombiř, 24 February 2011

Ummayads of Iberia

Almohades of North Africa

Abbasids from Egypt

Ottomans

by Željko Heimer

Ottomans being Turks were using a crescent bearing flag. When Saleem I resumed power as the caliph, the Ottoman flag was red with a green circle and three yellow crescents. Ottomans for the first time separate the religious flag and the national flag. The national flag was red with crescent facing right, while the religious flag green with crescent facing right. Later, a five-cornered star was added to symbolize the five pillars of Islam.

This green flag with crescent and star became a standard Islamic flag and is used till date, and it is very interesting that most of the people think that this flag has been used by Muslims since the beginning. This crescent bearing flag has been used by different Muslim empires and nations in the history especially those having Turkish origin. This crescent flag with some variations is still in use by different Muslim entities, e.g., Algeria, Azerbaijan, Comoros, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Uzbekistan, and Western Sahara.
Syed Junaid Imam, 6 September 1999

See further discussion on our pages about the Ottoman Empire.

Other Caliphates