Flag of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

Use

State and war flag, state and naval ensign

Proportion 2:3
Adopted

March 15, 1973

Design

A green field charged with the shahada

inscription and a sword in white.

The flag of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: ) is the flag used by the

government of Saudi Arabia since March 15, 1973. It is a green flag featuring in white an
Arabic inscription and a sword. The inscription is the Islamic creed, or shahada.

Design
The Arabic inscription on the flag, written in the calligraphic Thuluth script, is the shahada
or Islamic declaration of faith:

l ilha ill-llh, muhammadun raslu-llh

There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God.[1]

The shahada in the Saudi flag, with individual words highlighted in different colours. Word
order shown by colour key at bottom. (Read from right to left)
The green of the flag represents Islam and the sword stands for the House of Saud, the
founding dynasty of the country,[2] or the military strength and prowess of Saudi Arabia.[3]
The flag is manufactured with identical obverse and reverse sides, to ensure the shahada
reads correctly, from right to left, from either side. The sword points to the left on both
sides, in the direction of the script. The flag is sinister hoisted, meaning that it is hoisted to
the left of the flagpole, as viewed from the obverse (front) side. (Flagpole is to the right of
the flag). The flag's green is Pantone 349 C (C90, M12, Y95, K40)[4]

Use
Because the shahada is considered holy, the flag is not normally used on T-shirts or other
items. Saudi Arabia protested against its inclusion on a planned football to be issued by
FIFA, bearing all the flags of the participants of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Saudi officials
said that kicking the creed with the foot was completely unacceptable. Similarly, an attempt
by the U.S. military to win favour with children of the Prost region of Afghanistan by
distributing footballs adorned with flags, including that of Saudi Arabia, ended in
demonstrations.[5]
The flag is never lowered to half-mast as a sign of mourning, because lowering it would be
considered blasphemous.[6] Similarly, the flag of Somaliland is also never at half-mast.
The normal flag cannot be hoisted vertically according to Saudi legislation. Special vertical
flags are manufactured where both the inscription (the creed) and the emblem (the sword)
are rotated, although this is rare, as most Arab countries traditionally do not hoist flags
vertically.[7]

History
The Al Saud, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, has long been closely associated with the
Wahhabi religious movement. The Wahhabis, since the 18th century, had used the shahada
on their flags.[8] In 1902 Abdulaziz Abdulrahman Al-Saud, leader of the Al Saud and the
future founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, added a sword to this flag.[8] The design of
the flag was not standardized prior to March 15, 1973, and variants with two swords and/or
a white vertical stripe at the hoist were frequently used. By 1938, the flag had basically

assumed its present form, except the sword had a different design (with a more curved
blade) and it, along with the shahada above, took up more of the flag's space.

Variant of the flag in use from Variant of the flag in use from Variant of the flag in use
1932 to 1934, with white
1934 to 1938, with a thinner from 1938 to 1973, with no
stripe on the hoist.
white stripe.
stripe.

DESCRIPTION
The flag of Saudi Arabia was officially adopted in 1973.
Saudi Arabia's flag uses green to honor the country's puritanical Muslim Wahabi sect, and
also because green is widely believed to be the prophet Muhammad's favorite color. The
white, centered script, the shahada, is the Muslim Statement of Faith, "There is no God but
God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God". The sword represents Abd-al-Aziz.
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Saudi Arabia Flag