In fact, would you believe there was a flag just for that event? It’s called the flag of the Arab Revolt, and looks like this:
The colors represent the main dynasties of the Muslim caliphate.
Jordan
This one dates all the way back to 1928, not too long after the Arab Revolt itself.
That star, by the way, is an Islamic star. The 7 points all stand for something or other. I forget.
Palestine
Not really a state, but … This flag was adopted in the 1960s by the PLO.
If you’re thinking all they did was take the flag of Jordan and ditch the star, you might be right.
Western Sahara
Never heard of Western Sahara? It used to belong to Spain and is just below Morocco, who rule most of the territory. What they’re not in charge of, these guys are.
If you’re thinking all they did was take the flag of Palestine and thrown in the moon and star – well, once again, you might be right.
Sudan
Though Sudan was not part of the Arab Revolt by a long shot, they decided to go with this cute little number after a coup in 1970. Previously, they had flown this very non-Arab looking thing:
Kuwait
Kuwait adopted this flag only in 1961, when they achieved full independence. Up until that time, they went with an all-red flag with a bunch of writing on it. As far as I know, this one’s the only national flag with that cool trapezoidy thing.
United Arab Emirates
Here’s another one that’s fairly recent – 1971. It was designed by some local dude, one Abdullah Mohammad Al Maainah. He himself admits that “sometimes people have mistaken the UAE flag for another country, because it has the same colours as other Arab countries that adopted the pan-Arab colours of the 1916 Arab revolution.” Well, why didn’t you think of that beforehand, Abdullah?
More links:
No comments:
Post a Comment