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Chronology of Afghanistan Flags

A summarized chronology of past flags

Afghanistan has been deemed the winner of "the most frequent flag changes in the twentieth century" contest.

1901-1919 Black field with central white emblem of mosque, flags and wreath.
1919-1928 Same, except central emblem surrounded by eight pointed sunburst.
1928-Sep.1928 Similar to 1901.
Sep.1928-Jan.1929 Vertical black, red, green. Central white emblem of mountains, sun, wreath, topped by a star.
Jan.1929-Oct.1929 Similar to 1919-1928.
Oct.1929-1930 Same three-striped field, but using earlier emblem surrounded by sunburst.
1930-1973 Same three-striped field, central white emblem of mosque, flags, and wreath.
1973-1974 Same as the previous one, without the date in the emblem.
May 1974-Apr.1978 Horizontal field, lower half green, upper half is black over red. Emblem in upper hoist of eagle, pulpit, wreath, sunburst.
Apr.1978-Oct.1978 Same as previous, no emblem.
Oct.1978-Apr.1980 Red Field with gold emblem in upper hoist consisting of script characters (I believe it says Flag Party) wreath, and star.
Apr.1980-Nov.1987 Three equal horizontal stripes of black over red over green. Multicolor emblem in upper hoist of pulpit, book, wreath, sunburst, topped by cogwheel and red star.
Nov.1987-Apr.1992 Same as previous, but emblem lacks book and red star. Also the cogwheel was relocated to the bottom and the green "horizon" below the sunburst is now curved.
Apr.1992-Dec.1992 Three equal horizontal stripes of green, white, black with white text on green stripe and black text on white stripe.
Dec.1992- Same three stripes, but golden emblem centered on the flag.
1996- The Taliban regime assumes power in Kabul (although the regime was not widely recognised internationally).

Chronology by Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Peter Laursen made some very nice vectorial images of historical flags of Afghanistan, which he sent me, and for the purpose of the list he made GIFs of standard FOTW size. That is a pity since he had made very nice details of many emblems used on them, which were lost in the process. I quote Peter, "Here I send images of the Afghanistan flag. Of course I am not sure that all of them are correct, but it is at present my best bid of the Afghanistan flag history. My sources are Flag Bulletin, Flag Master, lots of books and my local flagmaker." I thought the flag GIFs made by Peter Laursen could be re-exported to give a bit better quality, so I did that.

Zeljko Heimer, 29 August 1997

See also:

Afghanistan

ca.1901-1919

by Jaume Ollé

Black field with central white emblem of mosque, flags and wreath.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Whitney Smith writes in the last release of Ar Banniel:

(...) The less common in basic colours of flags is black (21% of national flags.) In bicolour flags, the white-black combination is very unfrequent, although several flags are made of white and black and other colours. The reasons about it might be dark look, negative symbolical associations, or other factors. (...) The black Afghan flags were inspired by the black banners used by the Abassid dynasty (750-1258), which seemes to have been covered with golden (and not white) inscriptions.

Ivan Sache, 2 August 1999

1919-1928

by Jaume Ollé

Same, except central emblem surrounded by eight pointed sunburst.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Afghanistan State Flag ca.1920

by Mario Fabretto

I just have to add one more image to the set presented by Zeljko. This one comes from a photograph published on Flaggenmiteilung n. 72, 2/12/1981. The caption says that this is an Afganistan State flag, dated about 1920, conserved in the "Museum of History of Uzbekistan Peoples" in Tashkent; the information was sent by J. Kurasow. The proportions are also indicated, which are ca. 11:15.

Mario Fabretto, 5 September 1997

1928-Sep.1928

by Peter Laursen and Zeljko Heimer

Sep.1928-Jan.1929

by Jaume Ollé

Vertical black, red, green. Central white emblem of mountains, sun, wreath, topped by a star.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Variants in b&w and white only

by Peter Laursen and Zeljko Heimer

by Peter Laursen

Detail of coat-of-arms

(Click on image to see full size detail)
by Peter Laursen

Jan.1929-Oct.1929

by Peter Laursen and Zeljko Heimer

Oct.1929-1930

by Jaume Ollé

Same three-striped field [vertical black, red, green], but using earlier emblem surrounded by sunburst.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

1930-1974

by Mark Sensen

Same three-striped field, central white emblem of mosque, flags, and wreath.

Mark Sensen, 23 March 1996

1973-May 1974

by Mark Sensen modified by Santiago Dotor

May 1974-Apr.1978

by Mark Sensen

Horizontal field, lower half green, upper half is black over red. Emblem in upper hoist of eagle, pulpit, wreath, sunburst.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Detail of coat-of-arms

(Click on image to see full size detail)
by Peter Laursen

Apr.1978-Oct.1978

by Peter Laursen and Zeljko Heimer

Oct.1978-Apr.1980

by Mark Sensen

Red field with gold emblem in upper hoist consisting of script characters, wreath, and star.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Actually, this inscription and device was the coat-of-arms of Afghanistan after the overthrow of Noor al-Taraki by Barbak Kamal. (I hope I remembered that order correctly). The main word is Pashto for "the masses". The first line of the scroll's inscription translates as "Saur Revolution 1357" which is the Afghani date of the April 1978 change of government. I do not know what the last two lines of the scroll say. If I am not mistaken, I believe this may have been the only version of the Afghani national flag which did not feature black in its design until the Taliban's white banner came into use.

Daniel S. Padovano, 1 November 1997

The Spanish edition of Smith 1980 says that the flag used after the 27th April 1978 revolution carries the words The Masses and below, in the scroll, Revolution Saur 1357 (ie. April 1978) in Pashto (local dialect).

Santiago Dotor, 12 November 98

The writing on the red flag is pronounced Khalq meaning Masses. It is an Arabic word incorporated into the Dari and Pashtu languages. Khalq was the party that overthrew the Republic in 1973. Its two party and government leaders were Nur Muhammad Taraki and then Hafizullah Amin. When the Soviets invaded the country in December 1979, the flag changed back to the tricolor pattern.

Mir Hekmatullah Sadat, 6 May 1999

A horizontal version of this flag is pictured in Smith 1980 [Swedish edition] with the emblem centered near the top of the flag.

Marcus Wendel, 6 September 1999

Coat-of-arms

(Click on image to see full size detail)
by Peter Laursen

Apr.1980-Nov.1987

by Jaume Ollé

Three equal horizontal stripes of black over red over green. Multicolor emblem in upper hoist of pulpit, book, wreath, sunburst, topped by cogwheel and red star.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Nov.1987-Aug.1992

by Mark Sensen

Same as previous [three equal horizontal stripes of black over red over green. Multicolor emblem in upper hoist of pulpit, book, wreath, sunburst, topped by cogwheel and red star], but emblem lacks book and red star. Also the cogwheel was relocated to the bottom and the green "horizon" below the sunburst is now curved.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Apr.1992-Dec.1992

by Jaume Ollé

In 1990 or 1991 the Mujahadin prevailed over the Soviet/Russian army and internal factions in Afghanistan, and changed the flag to horizontal stripes of green, white, and black with script on the upper two stripes. In 1992 this again changed to omit the text in favor of a golden emblem centred, touching all three stripes.

Nick Artimovich, 26 June 1996

On the green is written Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest), on the white is the Shahada.

Dov Gutterman, 1 November 1998

One of many variants

by Zeljko Heimer

Three equal horizontal stripes of green, white, black with white text on green stripe and black text on white stripe.

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996