Flag of Egypt

Flag of Egypt
Vexillological symbol :
Aspect ratio:	2: 3
Officially accepted:	4th October 1984

The flag of Egypt in its current form was first hoisted on October 4, 1984.

Appearance and meaning

Flag with colored breast shield in Cairo

^? Flag of Egypt with a colored eagle breast shield

The flag shows three horizontal stripes in red, white and black with Saladin's golden eagle in the center of the white stripe. It goes back to the Arab liberation flag introduced after the abolition of the monarchy in 1952 , the colors of which mean the following:

• Red symbolizes the revolution in Egypt. The color comes first in order to document that the revolution first "breathed life" into the country.
• White stands for its bright future
• Black recalls the dark days of the past before the revolution

The state emblem of Egypt , Saladin's eagle in the white stripe of the flag, bears a tape with the country name: Jumhūriyat Misr al-ʿarabiya  /جمهورية مصر العربية / 'Arab Republic of Egypt'. Its coat of arms with three vertical stripes can be gold-white-gold as well as red-white-black.

Unofficially, especially by Egyptian nationalists, the flag is also interpreted as follows:

• Red symbolizes the desert of Egypt
• White was the color of the pharaohs
• Black represents the fertile soil of the Nile Valley and the people

history

Although Egyptian Mamluks were subjugated by the Ottomans in 1517 , they continued to rule Egypt until the Battle of the Pyramids . Historical flag books therefore show a green-yellow-green stripe flag for the area of ​​Egypt, which is assigned to the Mamluks.

As part of Ottoman rule, Egypt carried the flag of the Ottoman Empire until the 19th century : a white crescent moon with a star on a red cloth; the use of a plain red flag was also common. After Napoleon's Egyptian expedition and the withdrawal of the last French troops in 1801, violent power struggles broke out in Egypt, from which Muhammad Ali Pasha emerged as viceroy of Egypt in 1805 . It is possible that Muhammad Ali Pascha introduced a version with a six-pointed star from 1826 to distinguish it.

As a personal standard, Muhammad Ali Pasha and his successors, with the title of ruler Khedive , carried a red flag with three crescent moons and three five-pointed stars. They possibly symbolize the victories of his army in the three continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, or his rule over Egypt, Sudan and Nubia .

The fall of the then ruling Khedive by the national Urabi movement led to British intervention in 1882. Formally still part of the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain took control of the country. With the outbreak of World War I , Great Britain officially declared Egypt its protectorate , thus breaking the last formal ties with the Ottoman Empire. The deposition of the ruling Khedive led to the conversion of the Khedive flag into the first real Egyptian national flag.

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  ^? Flag of the Mamluks according to a historical flag book

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  ^? Personal standard of Muhammad Ali Pasha; from 1914 to 1923 the national flag of Egypt

At the same time, national parties increasingly demanded Egypt's independence, which culminated in a revolution in 1919. While the nationalists carried red flags with white crescent moons and stars to express their protest against British rule, a green flag with crescent moons and crosses appeared in 1919, symbolically representing another group. This flag symbolized that both Muslims and Coptic Christians supported the aspirations for independence.

The riots were put down, but continued agitation led to the end of the British Protectorate and the formation of the Kingdom of Egypt in 1922 . The nationalist Wafd party , which emerged victorious from the elections in September 1923 , chose a new national flag based on the revolutionary flag after its victory. Instead of the cross, three white stars, which stand for Muslims, Christians and Jews, are enclosed by the crescent moon. The color green stands for the national movement, the Hajji , and also alludes to the fertility of the Nile Delta. This flag was officially adopted on December 10, 1923.

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  ^? Revolutionary flag from 1919

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  ^? Kingdom of Egypt, flag from 1922 to 1958

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  ^? Naval War Flag, 1922-1952

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  ^? Flag of the Air Force, 1922 to 1953

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  ^? King standard on land, 1922 to 1953

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  ^? King standard at sea, 1922 to 1953

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  ^? King standard for airplanes, 1922 to 1953

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  ^? Standard of the Crown Prince on land, 1922 to 1953

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  ^? Standard of the Crown Prince of the Sea, 1922 to 1953

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  ^? Crown Prince's Standard for Airplanes, 1922-1953

The Egyptian revolution of 1952 led to the overthrow of the monarchy. The revolution was expressed with the Arab liberation flag, a tricolor striped in the pan-Arab colors of red, white and black. This liberation flag often contained Saladin's eagle in whose breastplate the crescent moon and the three stars of the national flag were depicted. The national flag and the flag of liberation coexisted side by side, with the old symbols of the national flag increasingly being displaced.

With the merger of Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic in 1958, the use of the crescent flag ended. The new national flag, based on the liberation flag and containing two green stars, was finally officially adopted on April 8, 1958. The two five-pointed stars stood for Egypt and Syria, and the green added the fourth pan-Arab color. Although this alliance of states (to which Yemen later joined) collapsed in 1961, the Egyptian government stuck to the unity of the Arab states and officially retained the flag until January 1, 1972. On that day, it was replaced by the common flag of the Federation of Arab Republics , a Another Arab alliance between Egypt, Syria and Libya was adopted. The two stars have been replaced by the Koreishite golden hawk . Although this alliance did not last long, Egypt held onto this flag until 1984 when it was replaced by the current version. The flag of the former United Arab Republic has been the flag of Syria again since 1982 .

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  ^? Revolution flag from 1952 (variant)

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  2: 3 ^? Flag of the United Arab Republic from 1958 to 1972, from 1961 only in Egypt, since 1982 flag of Syria again

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  2: 3 ^? Flag of the Federation of Arab Republics from 1972 to 1984

More flags of Egypt

The governorates of Egypt have their own flags.

→ Main article : List of flags of Egyptian governorates

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  Flag of the president

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  ^? Naval war flag

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  ^? War flag on land

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  Flag of the Egyptian Air Force

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Flags of the World - Egypt
2. ^ Flags of all seafaring nations , Verlag Egon Heinemann, John B. Norie; JS Hobbs, facsimile print based on the 1848 edition
3. ^ Flags of the World
4. ↑ Flags coat of arms data. The states of the world from AZ . Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, Karl-Heinz Hesmer, Gütersloh • Berlin • Munich • Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-570-01591-2
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} See literature: W. Smith
6. ↑ Variant on Flags of the World : https://flagspot.net/flags/eg-1952.html

literature

• Whitney Smith , Ottfried Neubecker : The signs of people and peoples. Our world in flags and banners . Reich Verlag, Lucerne 1975, ISBN 3-7243-0115-4 .
• Karl-Heinz Hesmer: flags, coats of arms, dates. The countries of the world from A - Z . Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh et al. 1975, ISBN 3-570-01591-2 .

Web links

Commons : Flag of Egypt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Flags of the World - Egypt (English)