Ancient Persian flags

Last modified: 2001-08-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: lion (yellow) | sun | persia | sheep | ram | qajar | herat | writing | shah tahmasb | nader shah | crescents: 9 (blue) |
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• XIXth century
• King Qajar (late 1700's)
• Nader Shah (1736-1747)
• XVIth century

See also:

• Iran
• Iran: Historical flags

XIXth century

I have an old atlas (printed in the term of Chester A. Arthur, so 1881-4) that depicts the flag of Persia as swallow-tailed, but with the angles at the fly sort of curved. It has five equal horizontal stripes: blue, yellow, green, yellow, blue. The green stripe is also the "tongue" of the swallowtail. On the blue stripes are three stars, with "parentheses" around the middle star. The yellow stripes have two red "four leaf clovers" each, and the green stripe has a sword pointing towards the fly and another star in parentheses at the fly.

Josh Fruhlinger, 11 May 1996

Before first World War flags showing the lion and sun on a plain background seem to have served as national flags. I have found no reference to the swallow-tailed flag mentioned above.

Harald Müller, 14 May 1996

by Jaume Ollé

This "Persian flag" is shown on a Japanese flag dated 1876. It was probably not the Persian national flag, but perhaps the flag of a local ruler in Persian Gulf. The flag