Pan-Arab Colors in Arab flags are red, black, white and green, Individually, each of those is intended to represent a certain Arab dynasty, or era. More common symbols in Arab flags include stars, crescents and the Shahada.
There are four Pan-Arab colors: white, red, green, and black. Historically, each of the three represents an era or a dynasty in the Arabic world. The representations are as follows:
- The Rashidun Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as the banner of Muhammad are all represented by the black color.
- The white color is representative of the Umayyad Caliphate
- The Fatimid Caliphate is represented by green.
- Lastly, the red color was used by the Hashemites, the Ottoman Empire, and the Khawarij.
The four colors can be also related to a verse from a poem by the 14th century Iraqi poet Safi al-Din al-Hilli who wrote: “White are our acts, black our battles, green our fields, and red our swords”.
History of the Pan-Arab Colors
The origin of the colors goes all the way back to the 14th century during the time of an Iraqi poet known as Safi Al-Din Al-Hilli. In one of his poems, as we already mentioned, there is a line that makes reference to the four colors. The line talks about white as a representation of the acts of man, the black as a representation of their struggles, the green for the fields where these struggles are fought on, while the red is for swords, and presumably the blood.
The very first time these colors were used together was back in 1916 when the flag of the Arab Revolt was designed by the British diplomat Sir Mark Sykes. The flag was a simple design involving three stripes of black, green, and white and a red triangle originating from the left side. Many current flags are based on Arab Revolt colours, such as the flags of Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and the United Arab Emirates. The short lived union between Iraq and Jordan (which is known as the Arab Federation) also had a flag that used the colors.
Red: The Khawarij
The Khawarij were the first Islamic group to emerge after the assassination of Caliph Uthman III, forming the first republican party in the begining days of Islam. They used the red flag. Arab tribes who participated in the conquest of North Africa and Andalusia carried the red flag, which then became the symbol of the Islamic rulers of Andalusia (756-1355).
Green: The Fatimid Dynasty (909-1171), North Africa
The Fatimid Dynasty was founded in Morocco by Abdullah Al-Mahdi, and went on to rule all of North Africa. They used green as their color, to symbolize their allegiance to Ali, the Prophet’s cousin, who story says was once wrapped in a green covers in place of the Prophet in order to aviod an assassination attempt.
White: The Umayyad Dynasty (661-750), Damascus
The Umayyads ruled for ninety years, using white as their symbolic color as a reminder of the Prophet’s first battle at Badr, and to distinguish themselves from the Abbasids (who used black as their color). Mu’awia Ibn Abi Sufian (661-750), founder of the Umayyad state, proclaimed himself Caliph of Jerusalem.
Black: The Prophet Mohammad (570-632)
In the seventh century, with the rise of Islam and subsequent liberation of Mecca, two flags – one white, one black – were carried. On the white flag the Shahada was written: “There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is the Prophet of God”.
In pre-Islamic times, the black flag was a sign of revenge. It was the color that generals wore when leading troops into battle. Both black and white flags were placed in the mosque during Friday prayers.
The Arab Liberation Colors
During the 1950s, a subset of the Pan-Arab colours came to prominence: the Arab Liberation colors. This set of colors started becoming more popular and eventually replaced the Pan-Arab ones. The new colors were almost the same as the old ones with a slight difference. In the new scheme, the flag featured three bands of white, black, and red, and the green color is given less prominence or not included at all. The design is of a tricolor – a type of flag with a triband design which originated in the 16th century as a symbol of republicanism, liberty and revolution.
Under the new flag, the colors adopted a different meaning: the black now stood for past foreign oppressors, the red symbolized the bloody sacrifices made, and the white was representative of a bright future full of hope.
The inspiration for these new colors can be traced back to the Arab Liberation flag that was in use during the 1952 Egyptian Revolution (also called the July 23 revolution). The revolution was led by two army officers, Gamal Abdel Nasser (Later became president of Egypt) and Mohammed Naguib, who wanted end the reign of King Farouk.
The Arab Liberation tricolour became the basis for the current flags of Egypt, Iraq, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. There were also Arab unions that did not last very long but had the Arab Liberation colors, like the Federation of Arab Republics and the United Arab Republic.
The Shahada
The Shahadah is the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of Allah and acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet. The phrase is written in some of the Pan-Arab flags such as the Iraq and Somalia ones.
لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ There is no god but Allah.
مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.
