What happened to the Old Egyptian Flag?

This is the flag of Egypt, but did you know that historically Egypt had a different flag? Well, in today's video, let's look back at the older flags of Egypt and their historical significance. Egypt, of course, is one of the oldest countries on earth and actually we have some ancient Egyptian inscriptions and pictures that show flags and standards being used already. However, the first standards and flags that we can identify with some accuracy comes following the Arab or the Islamic conquest of Egypt in the 7th century. Now, one of the earliest dynasties of Muslim rulers were the Umayyads, but they were overthrown in 750 by a different dynasty called the Abbasid Caliphate, which had originated in what is today Iran. Interestingly enough, to support the accession of these new caliphs, several religious verses were written about them and how they would appear in the east. And this actually inspired some of the earliest flags in Egypt and indeed continues to inspire certain flags around the Muslim world today. One of these verses reads, three will fight one another for your treasure, each one of them the son of a caliph, but none of them will gain it. Then the black banners will come from the east and they will kill you in an unprecedented manner. When you see them, then pledge your allegiance to them, even if you have to crawl over the snow, for that is the caliph from Allah, Mahdi. It is of course, the black banners, which are described in other verses as coming from Khorasan, which is a loosely defined area in the east, potentially areas of Iran or Afghanistan. So some of the first flags that we have in Islam and indeed being used in Egypt, were black banners of the Abbasid Caliphate. Later on in Egyptian history, in the Fatimid period, they started using white banners instead. And a little bit after that in the Ayyubid dynasty, they were using golden or yellow banners. It's these yellow banners that are picked up on by the next rulers of Egypt, who were a slave mercenary class of diverse background called the Mamluks. And these Mamluks after having rested control, decided to stick with the golden yellow theme on the flags, but adding certain elements of Islamic imagery onto the banners. So here we see, of course, the crescent moon, which is found on many different Islamic flags still today, and indeed historically too. Another of these Islamic entities that has a crescent moon on its flag is the Ottoman Empire. And the Ottoman Empire would go on to incorporate what is now Egypt in 1517. However, it's the events of a few centuries later in 1798, when the French under Napoleon invaded Egypt, and eventually were kicked out by the British and the Arabs, that really started to shake things up in Egypt as it is concerning flags. Now, it's because of the chaos caused by the French invasion that by 1803, we have a situation of a very complex civil war evolving in Egypt between the Ottomans, who officially ruled the area, between the former rulers of Egypt, the Mamluks, who rose up in rebellion, and a third faction made up of Albanian mercenaries, who were led by a figure called Muhammad Ali. Now, no, not that Muhammad Ali, this Muhammad Ali, who would go on to win the civil war and become the ruler of Egypt. In 1844 in Egypt, they would adopt this flag, which clearly is based on the Ottoman flag, which also has many of these red backgrounds with a white crescent moon and star. It was changed in 1867 to this design that incorporated three stars on it instead. The reason why they chose to emulate the Ottoman flag is that even though they were de facto independent following the success of Muhammad Ali in the early 1800s, they were still officially a part of the Ottoman Empire. And the dynasty that ruled in Egypt always had hopes of challenging the powers of those in Istanbul and taking over control from them to become the caliph of the entire Ottoman Empire, even though this did not succeed. More on the origins of the Ottoman or the Turkish flag in this video on the subject. So we see that this flag with the three stars is being used from 1867 onwards in Egypt. Now, there are several explanations for why there are three stars on this banner instead of the one that is found on the Ottoman flag. One of the explanations goes that it is because the dynasty managed to win victories in Africa, in Asia, and in Europe, while others claim that the three goes back to the fact that all three communities of Coptic Christians, Jews, and Muslims were represented in the state. This is a somewhat later flag that was adopted in the 19th century which had three crescent moons and stars on it as well in this pattern. And even though in 1914 Egypt would officially be captured by the British in the First World War from the Ottoman Empire and would be ruled by the British, the British decided to keep this as the official flag of the British possession of Egypt. However, things would change in 1922 when the Egyptians successfully petitioned for independence from the British Empire. The British agreed, but on the condition that the rulers of Egypt would no longer call themselves caliphs, but instead call themselves king. And so the kingdom of Egypt was proclaimed in 1922 and as their official flag they chose this design which clearly harks back to the former Ottoman period flags except the main color has changed and the design of the crescent moon and stars has also been altered so that the stars are inside of the crescent moon. Now the reason why green is selected is possibly because green is a highly significant important color in Islam and is found on several other Islamic flags today, most notably that of Saudi Arabia which is largely green and during the period of Muammar Gaddafi's rule in Libya that flag was just plain green too. There are other explanations for why the three stars are found on this flag being that it is the three principal territories that were ruled over by the kingdom of Egypt which was not only what is Egypt but also Nubia, an area to the south, and Sudan, an area further to the south that later would become independent as well. A final explanation for the green color was that it represents the fertility of the Nile, of course the areas around the Nile that are fertilized by its waters being particularly green especially in contrast with the desert surrounding it. This would be the official flag until 1952 when in a coup the monarchy was overthrown and Egypt became a republic as a result of this army coup. Now the flag actually stayed the same but it had another flag that came alongside it to be a second official flag and that is this design here. There are several layers of significance behind this revolutionary flag. First of all the three colors that we see on it are the red, the white, and the black. The red saying that it is symbolic for blood in in war that was fought against colonizing powers in Egypt, the white being the purity of the hearts of the Egyptians, and the black being the overcoming of darkness. Now the red, white, and black are commonly referred to as the pan-Arabic colors although technically the pan-Arabic colors would be red, white, black, and green although of course we also have the green actually on the flag in the center so retaining the former flag of the kingdom of Egypt with the crescent moon and the three stars which perhaps represent the constituent parts of Egypt that we have together. So really this flag does contain all the pan-Arabic colors as well as the bird that we see in the middle. The meaning behind the colors and the flag does change from one Arab country to another but this is that that was given for Egypt. Now on the pan-Arabic colors we of course have this bird which is sometimes called a hawk but is mostly seen as being an eagle because this is said to be the eagle of Saladin. Saladin being a figure from the 13th century who successfully aided Egypt and the the larger Muslim territories in the Middle East at that time fighting against the Christian crusaders and so he was seen as a especially important figure even though he was a Kurd of origin rather than being an Arabic Egyptian and so his eagle is found on the flag from this point onwards. Now in 1958 Egypt would actually align with Syria and form the United Arab Republic and it would adopt as its flag this flag that we may still recognize today as the flag that Syria continues to use. Again we find the pan-Arabic colors of red white and black with green in the center on a design. The two stars in this case symbolize the two states that have come together to found this United Arab Republic which is Egypt and Syria. Now in 1961 Syria would leave the republic but would continue to use its flag despite the fact it was no longer together with Egypt. However in 1971 Egypt would join another union with Syria that also included Libya and this also had its own flag with again the familiar pan-Arabic colors and this time a different bird in the center. This unit was called the Federation of Arab Republics and wouldn't last particularly long but the bird in the center was the hawk of Quraish. Quraish again being an important region and going back to earlier Islamic history as a symbol of some importance that is still found on the coat of arms of most of the Arabic countries to this day. Now in 1977 this unit would fall apart but Egypt would continue to use the flag of this joint unit until 1984 when they decided to shake things up once again and this they did by adopting this flag. So finally we have a flag that looks rather similar to the flag that was adopted at the time that Egypt became a republic in 1952 and we have on it the pan-Arabic colors of red white and black with a golden eagle of Saladin and that is the story of Egypt's flag. So everyone thank you very much for watching this video about the Egyptian flag. Let me know in the comments below did you know about Egypt's flag already and how many birds it's had on its flag? Come to think of it do you know any other countries around the world that have birds on their flags? I can think of one in the Pacific and one in Central Asia and I'm sure that there will be others. I know of two at least two that have dragons on them but it might be quite fun to go around the world in flags and see which animals appear. There's also quite a few with lions if I'm not mistaken yeah and I'm sure plenty more wacky examples to be found in the comments below. Let me know if you would like to have any more videos about any of the North African, Middle Eastern or perhaps you could call them Arabic countries and their flags many of them having the pan-Arabic colors but each one having slightly different significance there. Anyway let me know in the comments below if you would like to see something about that and I'll have some videos on diverse topics in the future to come so stick around for that and I will see you all very soon. Until then I have been Hilbert and this has been The History.