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Egypt

Misr

by Mark Sensen

Flag and coat of arms adopted 4 February 1984

The inscription on the ribbon is Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiya (Arab Republic of Egypt).

Even thou both the inscription of the former coat of arms Al-Jumhuriya (Al-Arabiya Al-Misriya) and Jumhuriyat Misr Al-Arabiya are translated to the same "Arab Republic of Egypt", there is a big internal political difference between the two. In the first (old) way - the Republic is first Arabic and then Egyptian, in the newer version it is first Egyptian and then Arabic.

Dov Gutterman, 18 October 1999

Alternative design

The emblem in the middle of the white stripe is sometimes pictured with different colours.

by Mark Sensen and Ivan Sache

See also:

Official information about the flag history, symbolism and rules of use

From the State Information Service Website

"The first national flag of modern Egypt was established by a Royal Decree in 1923 when Egypt gained conditional independence from Great Britain in 1922. The color was green with a white crescent and three stars in the middle.
In 1958, a Presidential Decree established a new flag for the United Arab Republic which comprised a merger of Syria and Egypt. The new flag had three colors: red, white with 2 green stars and black. The flag was rectangular in shape and the width was one-third of its length.
[Editor's note]: the flag of the period 1952-1958 is strangely omitted.
In 1972, the Law was amended to change the flag. The stars were removed from the flag and replaced by a golden hawk.
In 1984, the hawk was replaced by a golden eagle on the eagle of Saladdin, the Ayubbid Sultan who ruled Egypt and Syria in 12th Century, the same Saladdin of the Crusades.

Color Symbolism
The color red refers to the period before 1952 Revolution which brought a group of army officers to power after deposing King Farouk, then King of Egypt. This was a period characterized by the struggle against the British occupation of the country. The white symbolizes the advent of the 1952 Revolution which ended the monarchy without bloodshed. The color black symbolizes the end of the oppression of the people of Egypt at the hands of the Monarchy and British colonialism.

Rules Governing the Hoisting of the Flag
The national flag is hoisted on all governmental buildings on Fridays, official holidays, on the inauguration of the People's Assembly session and other occasions on which the Minister of Interior orders that the flag be hoisted. The flag is hoisted daily on border posts and customs buildings. It is also hoisted on Egyptian consulates and embassies overseas on the National Day and other national occasions, as well as during the visit of the President to the country hoisting the diplomatic mission.

Penal Provisions for Contempt of the Flag
Abusing the flag in any way is a criminal offense and is punishable under law as it implies contempt of the power of the state. Penal provisions also govern abuse of foreign flags or national emblems of other countries."

Quoted by Dov Gutterman, 13 January 1999

All Egyptian flags, from the Ottoman era until now are displayed in one line in the Egypt Military Museum
Dov Gutterman, 13 January 1999

Alternative explanations of the flag symbolism

Smith ([smi75b] and [smi80]), says that the colors represent:
Red - revolution
White - bright future
Black - Dark past

The derivation of red and black as being from the ancient Egyptians would have to be pseudo-history that is attributed to the ancient Egyptian view of their land. You had the red land, the desert, and Kemet (spelled by using the hieroglyphs KMT), the black land - the land which was farmed. It was called that because the annual flood of the Nile would deposit the rich black silt on the fields. Hence, the name of the nation was Kemet. The actual attribution of using those colors specifically by the ancients is quite speculative....as speculative as saying that green was the color of the Hittites or blue was the color of the Greeks. While they may have used those colors, we really can't say nor can we say why they used those colors.

Calvin Paige Herring, 12 January 1999

The Pharoahs ruled Egypt for over 2500 years, so it is of course possible that some of them used red and black as colors. But I think it is pretty easily demonstrated that these colors are from fairly recent vintage.
During World War I, Arabs in the Hejaz (the Red Sea coast of the Arabian peninsula) rose up against the Ottoman Sultan, with the help of the British, who were fighting the Ottomans at the time. The revolt was headed by the Hashemite dynasty of Mecca, and their banner was red, white, green, and red. Jordan is the last state left with a Hashemite ruling king, and thus its flag is closest to the original model. The colors are intended to correspond to the early Islamic dynasties of the first half of the middle ages, though I forget which colors correspond to which; this is probably an "invented tradition," as the use of flags by such dynasties is anachronistic.
The Hashemite revolt was the Arab world's first embrace of European-style nationalism, but it was largely unsuccessful, mostly due to lack of Western support. The Arab-speaking areas of the old Ottoman empire were mostly divided up between France and England, though the British did install Hashemite princes as local rulers in the areas they controlled. Even in the Hejaz, the Hashemites were driven out by the Wahabi Saudi dynasty, which, then as now, was less concerned with Arab nationalism than in its doctrine of religious fundamentalism.
Nevertheless the flag was remembered as associated with Arab nationalism, even if the Hashemite dynasty was not. When the next phase of Arab nationalism began, in the aftermath of WWII, it was dominated by pan-Arabist parties like the Ba'ath party and military strongmen who set up republics. Although this wave of nationalism swept away the Hashemite king of Iraq, most of its leaders used a red-white-black banner derived from the original Arab revolt. Egypt adopted a red-white-black flag at this time, though not identical to the current model. The fact that this flag adoption coinsides with the adoptions of very similar flags by Syria, Iraq and (I think) Yemen and Libya (Qadaffi's all-green flag didn't come in till later) seems to prove false the idea that said colors are inherently Egyptian. In fact, the Egyptian regime that made this flag choice is the same one that would later participate in the short-lived expirament of the United Arab Republic, a brief union between Egypt and Syria. This project shows aspirations beyond mere Egyptianism.
Since this tide of Arab nationalism did not result in Arab unity, as the failure of the UAR helped show, it is not surprising that the current Egyptian government ties the color scheme to purely Egyptian ideologies. However, I think this helps demonstrate the dangers of taking "official" descriptions of flags at face value. A historical approach can be more fruitful in determing the reasons for flag design, even if those reasons are no longer in favor with the regime that flies the flag. While we certainly should not ignore current beliefs about the meaning of flags -- especially if those beliefs are held by the bulk of national populations -- it is important that we do not let governments rewrite or erase chapters of history, because without that history we cannot understand current conditions properly. (Think of Orwell's "We have always been at war with Eurasia...")

Josh Fruhlinger, 11 January 1999

Syria uses the same eagle exactly as her state sign (only the shield in the center carries the Syrian flag) and the Palestinians use the same eagle too with their flag on the shield.

Tejman Shai, 13 January 1999

Naval ensign, jack and flag of the President of the Republic

by Calvin Paige Herring