Last modified: 2000-01-21 by santiago dotor
Keywords: united arab emirates | white pierced red | general maritime treaty 1820 | trucial coast | trucial oman | trucial sheikdoms | pirates' coast | no.1 flag | no.2 flag |
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![[White pierced red 1820 flag]](../images/ae~wpr20.gif)
White pierced red flag
by Graham Bartram
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Until the 19th century the Gulf emirates' monochrome red flags were undifferentiated, but then they added white borders, hoists, stripes, script, etc.. Moore and Ross 1986 says that in 1820 the British asked Gulf Emirs who were friendly to them and entered into special treaty relationship with them to put white onto their traditional red Muslim flags. There was, however, no standard way to display this white and it was up to the locals to find a way. In most cases, there wasn't even a standardization, it seems, at any single point in time, much less over time. This explains the white on the flags of the states, as well as on the hoist of the flags of Qatar and Bahrain (both of which were invited to join the UAE when it was formed in 1971 but declined). Fujayrah never entered a treaty relationship with the British, so its flag remained plain red. That treaty was the "truce" that changed the Pirate Coast to the Trucial Coast (or Trucial Oman as it was sometimes misleadingly called).
James Dignan, Josh Fruhlinger, Ed Haynes and Ole Andersen, 1995-1997
Flag books often refer to the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 which instituted the red and white flags of some arab states in the Persian Gulf. I have just found a copy of that treaty in "History of the Indian Navy" by C.R.Low. Here are the articles which relate to flags.
"The following is a translation of the general Treaty of peace with the arab tribes of the Persian Gulf, dated the 8th of January 1820. In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate! Praise be to God, who hath ordained peace to be a blessing to his creatures! There is established a lasting peace between the British Government and the Arab tribes, who are parties to the contract, on the following conditions:
Art. 3. The friendly (literally the pacificated) Arabs shall carry, by land and by sea, a red flag, with or without letters in it, at their option; and this shall be in a border of white, the breadth of the white in the border being equal to the breadth of the red, as represented in the margin [of the original document], the whole forming the flag known in the British Navy by the title of 'White pierced Red'; and this shall be the flag of the friendly Arabs, and they shall use it, and no other.
Art. 4. The pacificated tribes shall all of them continue in their former relations, with the exception that they shall be at peace with the British Government, and shall not fight with each other; and the flag shall be a symbol of this only, and of nothing further.
Art. 10. The vessels of the friendly Arabs, bearing their flag above described, shall enter into all the British ports, and into the ports of the allies of the British, so far as they shall be able to effect it, and they shall buy and sell therein; and if any shall attack them, the British Government shall take notice of it."
Gresham Carr 1956 wrote:
Abu Dhabi, Ajman, and Dubai and Umm-al-Qawain use the No.1 Flag, consisting of a long narrow red field, three by one, having a white vertical stripe at the hoist and occupying one sixth the length of the flag. No.2 Flag has a white square field with a small red square in the centre: this is flown by Sharjah, Ras-al-Khaimah, and Kalba.No.2 is the one described in the treaty; the length of each side of the square in the centre of the flag is the same as the width of the border around it. To put it another way; the square in the centre is one ninth of the square flag.
The treaty was signed by different tribes on various dates between mid-day on Saturday 8th January and 15th March 1820. The Chief of Khor Hassan near Bahrein refused to sign on the grounds that he was subordinate to the Persian Government. This was allowed on the understanding that the Governor of Bushire (Bushehr) was responsible for his conduct.
David Prothero, 25 October 1998
Is this the reference to the one emirate that did not have white in its flag up to recently (Fujairah)?.
Zeljko Heimer, 25 October 1998
I believe that the sheik of Fujairah is not related with Persia (or Bushire governor) but with Muscat Sultan (remember that the Muscat flags were previousely plain red). Fujairah only was recognized separate independent (protected) state after 1952, when the near emirate of Kalba, governed with a colateral Kawasin dinasty, was annexed to Sharjah, governed for the main Kawasin line. In other hand a flag of Fujairah with the name in white letters flow frequently after 1952.
Jaume Ollé, 25 October 1998
I think that the flag is three breadths (the unit of measurement in UK flags) wide, being one of white, one of red and one of white (ie like the old Belarus), with the white border continuing on the hoist and fly sides as well. The whole paragraph is written in archaic English. The current flag of Ras-al-Khaimah is similar, but the red is twice as wide as the flag described above. I've attached a GIF of what I think it would look like - it assumes the flag is the usual UK 1:2 ratio.
Graham Bartram, 27 October 1998
A word about flags of the Emirates: It seems to be very clear, which emirate flies or flew what flag. But that is too easy. The Treaty of 1820 only prescribes one flag for the sheikhs. The flag, called "white pierced red", was to be used by all sheikhs, but there was a rivalry between the tribes in the Gulf region. The most important was the Qawasim tribe, ruling most of the area. This tribe was also the leading one in piracy, so the treaty was in fact a treaty between the British and the Qawasim to stop piracy. Their sheiks ruled in Sharjah, Ras al Khaimah, Fujairah (Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr of Sharjah, who signed the treaty in 1820, had been sheikh of Ras al-Khaimah until 1809!). So other tribes looked upon this flag as the Qawasim-flag. Norie has the flag in his book (1848) as the "flag of the Wahabees" which is not correct, as the Wahabees were at war against the Qawasim. But from his note you can see that this flag was seen as the flag of one tribe. As the treaty was one against piracy on land the plain red flag was kept in use (I have several photographs from books that show plain red flags!), and at some times (war against other tribes, etc.) the red flag was flown even at sea.
A plain red flag was also used by Muscat. Muscat had quite friendly relations to all of the tribes, but not to the Qawasim. So it seems natural that the other tribes preferred the plain flag. For example: Abu Dhabi "officially" readopted the plain red flag in 1833/34 and returned to the white bordered flag after the new sea-treaty of 1835. On land they kept the plain red flag (until 1958!!!). At sea Abu Dhabi introduced a new flag between 1905 and 1930, the same time as Dubai: red with a white strip. The flag at sea was changed in 1958 to the present one, some years later this flag became also the flag on land.
You see there was one flag in the beginning: the "white pierced red". That flag was not acknowledged by all tribes, so later there were two types of flags: the Qassimi-flag (red with a white border around) and the flag of the other tribes (at first plain red, later red with a white strip).
Jaume Ollé writes about the Qawasim dynasty, ruling in Ras al-Khaimah and Sharjah. That is strictly speaking wrong, as Qawasim is the plural. The singular is Qassim. So it is the Qassimi dynasty. The people belonging to it are Qawasim.
This is a very short version of UAE flags' history. The long version would also include reasons for the flags' dimensions and explanations why the similarity between the flags of Bahrain and Qatar is no "accident" (their origin lies in a third flag once well known in the Gulf region).
A little bit more: sometimes one can read that "the treaty of 1820 was signed by the seven states". That is not correct. There were no states, the treaty was signed by sheikhs who ruled tribes and sections of tribes. And there were more than seven. As the British did not know about the importance of each sheikh they made a treaty with "as many as they could find". I counted twelve sheikhs who signed the treaty between January and March 1820. At some times there were other flags in use than red ones, but that will need some more research, before talking about.
Ralf Stelter, 2 April 1999
The white pierced red of the treaty of 1820 was a square flag. A sketch is accompanying the text of the treaty, but there is some doubt, if it was ever in use that shape, because the Arab tribes preferred very long flags on their ships (it is no accident that old flag charts show proportions of 1:3, 1:4, and even 1:6 in Arab flags (seagoing tribes or nations)), as you may remember the first Iranian flag of green-white-red stripes had proportions of 1:3. It is not even clear if the red "dot" in the center was of half the size of the cloth or smaller, as the instructions how to make them were not very clear. Later books show it being 1/9th of the flag, but even Norie showed (1848) a rectangular flag (although he named it "flag of the Wahabees" which is wrong) with a narrow border.
Ralf Stelter, 17 May 1999