Last modified: 2025-08-30 by rob raeside
Keywords: morocco | star: 5 points (green) | pentagram | seal of solomon | solomon seal | mourning |
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![[Morocco, model 2005, construction sheet]](../images/m/ma'.gif)
2:3 image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 April 2014
Red with Solomon’s seal (green outlined fivepointed star). It is one of the red arabic flags, though Morocco is quite far away from Emirates.
Željko Heimer, 25 Nov 1995
Article 4 [of the Protection of the National Symbols Act 2005] prescribes the characteristics of the flag. The flag shall be red with a green five-pointed star in the middle. It shall be made with a piece of fast ("grand teint") fabric, bright red, opaque and rectangular in shape. The star shall be voided ("ouverte"), of green palm-tree colour, made of five continuous branches and woven in the fabric used for the flag [i.e. not woven separately and sewn onto the flag]. The star must be visible on both sides of the flag. One of its point must point upwards. The overall ratio of the flag shall be 2:3. The star is inscribed in an invisible circle whose radius equals 1/6th of the flag length and whose centre is the intersection point of the invisible diagonals of the flag. The width of each branch of the star shall be 1/20th of its length.
Ivan Sache, 15 Aug 2005
Concerning the description of the flag of Morocco, here is an excerpt of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco (10 March 1974, revised 4 September 1992):
Pascal Vagnat, 16 May 1999Chapter One
Article 7: The emblem of the Kingdom shall be a red flag with a five-pointed green star in the centre. (…)
General provisions
The green pentagram shown on the national flag of Morocco is often called Solomon’s seal. Its origin might date back to the Babylonian Empire, c. 2000 BC. The pentagram might have represented goddess Ishtar, assimilated by the Muslims to Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. On the Moroccan flags, the pentagram represents the link between God and the nation. Remember that Islam is the official religion in Morocco and that the King, descendant of the Prophet, bears the title of Commander of the Believers.
Ivan Sache, 15 Jun 2003, based on [lux01]
Until the independence it was limited as national flag in French zone, and was also used as national and merchant flag in Tangier (while it was not used
in the Spanish zone). After the independence it remained the national flag on land (for all purposes, so
), but as Smith [smi82] indicates it was also used as civil and state ensign on sea
(while the war ensign included a crown in canton). However, in early 1990’s a new set of ensigns was introduced.
Željko Heimer, 08 Jun 2002
Morocco is a complicated case from my point of view. The big challenge is not the colors, but its design!
And not only in the case of the national flag, but also in the case of the civil and naval ensign. Not to
mention that other flags have also changed in the meantime.
FOTW-ws shows some design variations, but there are more:
Zoltan Horvath, 21 July 2024
image by Zoltan Horvath
There can be a misunderstanding in case of the Moroccan flag. The translation of the flag law says:
"... the emblem of the Kingdom shall be a red flag with a five-pointed green star in the center. The
flag shall be made with fabric of bright red, opaque and rectangular in shape." In my term, it says
that the flag is red and doesn't give more specific of its shade. The next sentence including the word
"bright" only refers to the cloth the flag is made of, but not to the color shade of the national
flag. Actually, "bright" is not equal with "light".
I created a comparison chart of flags from various sources in order to demonstrate my dilemma regarding the
colors and the design of the Moroccan flag.
Zoltan Horvath, 21 July 2024
image by Jaume Ollé, 16 May 2005
The official Moroccan Royal Navy flag plates show a big star, about 1/2 of the hoist.
Armand du Payrat, 20 Jun 1997
Those official flag plates show a Seal of Solomon at one-half of flag width, however, whilst this flag plate shows the Royal Standard, Jack, Merchant Flag, Naval Ensign and Masthead Pendant it does not include the National Flag.
Christopher Southworth, 7 Jul 2004
![[Morocco, vertical flag]](../images/m/ma_.gif)
5:3 image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 19 April 2014
So, while the recommendations within source may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be. (...) For Morocco the vertical flag is simply the horizontal version in 5:3, shades given as PMS 193 red, 363 green.
Source: Flags and Anthems Manual London Olympics 2012
Ian Sumner, 11 Oct 2012
| no fimbriation |
with fimbriation | |
|---|---|---|
| solid |
|
|
| inter- laced |
|
|
These are the possible alternatives for moroccan flags: gapless or interlaced (these having a different kind of symmetry); fimbriated or not.
António Martins, 8 Dec 2000
Which one is correct? Old flag books always show and interlaced pentacle like on the Ethiopian national flag.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 21 May 2003
Most of my sources
(National Geographic 1917 [gmc17],
Flaggenbuch 1939 [neu92],
Smith 1975 [smi75c],
Smith 1985 [smi85c],
Dorling-Kindersley 1998 [rya98],
Znamierowski 1999 [zna99],
Shipmate 1998 [vdv98] and
2000 [vdv00])
show the “simple pentagram”. Two of them however
([smi75c] and
[smi85c]) show the
“pentagram with gaps” on the
coat-of-arms,
as clearly different from that on the flag.
Only Barraclough [bar71]
and Crampton 1981 [cra81]
and 1989 [cra89] show the
“pentagram with gaps” on the flag. On both, the thickness of
the star’s outline is obviously only intended to separate the two
main colours (red and green).
Santiago Dotor, 17 Nov 2000
This seems to imply that the pentagram on the flag has no gaps, but on the coat-of-arms yes, which might explain some flags with gaps on the pentagram, for having been made from images of the arms. Othe other hand, could the latter be right and the others wrong? (After all, the sources above are actually only three, as Zna., DK and Shipmate stem all from Smith’s material.)
António Martins, 26 Nov 2000
Both the original Decree of 1915 and its confirmation of 1956 give a size for the Seal of Solomon but no details of its construction. However, official illustrations (originally sent to Armand du Payrat in January 1997) of the Jack, Civil and
Naval Ensigns all show an interlaced pentacle with outline and I think therefore, that we may assume this to be correct portrayal. I do not know whether actual flags in use show a detailed pentacle, but it would appear that in theory (at least) they should?
Christopher Southworth, 21 May 2003
I believe that inlcusion of the interlacing patterns is not considered important part of the flag design and it may be included or omited just as one includes or omits fring on some flags. Also, it seems that the more elaborate (ie. expensive) flags do show the interlacing, while the “common” patterns do not. It was decided for 2000 Album [pay00] issue, through some evidence that the non-interlaced patterns are far more common in usage on sea.
Željko Heimer, 22 May 2003
Today Embassy of Kingdom of Morocco in Tokyo confirmed that the seal of Solomon is interlaced pentacle and that actual flags in use by the Emabassy show interlaced pentacle.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 4 Jun 2003
I can confirm that the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in London also fly a flag with an interlaced pentacle, and (like the Embassy in Tokyo) as far as they are concerned this is what the flag should be.
Christopher Southworth, 4 Jun 2003
![[Morocco, model 1915]](../images/m/ma915.gif)
2:3 image by Željko Heimer, 8 Jun 2003
The Decrees of 1915 and 1956 give the width of the Seal of Solomon as being «contained within an imaginary circle
equalling one-third the width of the flag», and know of no legislation which has superseded them.
Christopher Southworth, 07 Jul 2004
![[Morocco, model 1915 construction sheer]](../images/m/ma915'.gif)
2:3 image by Željko Heimer, 8 Jun 2003
At Yahoo News site, a flag mourning ritual
I have never seen before. My guess is to prevent the wind from unfurling the
national flag, to show that the former national ruler is deceased. It’s probably
unique to Morocco, or at least the Arab World: "A member of the Moroccan
Consulate in Paris ties the Moroccan flag around a mast to mark official
mourning of the death of King Hassan II Saturday, July 24, 1999."
David Kendall, 26 Jul 1999
An image of the coat of arms displayed in a vertical banner can be seen at
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-flag-with-moroccan-coat-of-arms-marrakech-morocco-africa-16610315.html
William Garrison, 21 July 2022
