Black Standard

Arab armies in the 7th century were using standards to identify themselves on the field of battle. Among these standards, the rāya was a square banner; not to be confused with the liwāʾ or ʿalam, an identifying mark like a red turban.^[3][4]

Islamic tradition states that the Quraysh had a black liwāʾ and a white-and-black rāya.^[5] It further states that Muhammad had an ʿalam in white nicknamed "the Young Eagle" (العقاب, al-ʿuqāb); and a rāya in black, said to be made from his wife Aisha's head-cloth.^[6] This larger flag was known as the Eagle.^[7]

The hadith reports Muhammad said that the advent of the Mahdi would be signalled by Black Standards proceeding from Khorasan and that it will be the flag of the army that will fight the Masih ad-Dajjal.^[8][9][10] At the Battle of Siffin, according to tradition, Ali used the liwāʾ of the Prophet, which was white^[3][4] while those who fought against him instead used black banners.^[11]

The Abbasid Revolution against the Umayyad Caliphate adopted black for its rāyaʾ for which their partisans were called the musawwids.^[12] Their rivals chose other colours in reaction; among these, forces loyal to Marwan II adopted red.^[13] The choice of black as the colour of the Abbasid Revolution was already motivated by the "black standards out of Khorasan" tradition associated with the Mahdi. The contrast of white vs. black as the Fatimid vs. Abbasid dynastic colour over time developed in white as the colour of Shia Islam and black as the colour of Sunni Islam.^[14] After the revolution, Islamic apocalyptic circles admitted that the Abbasid banners would be black but asserted that the Mahdi's standard would be black and larger.^[8][9][10] Anti-Abbasid circles cursed "the black banners from the East", "first and last".^[15]

A black flag was used by the Hotak dynasty in the early 18th century, following Mirwais Hotak's Sunni rebellion against the Twelver Shi'i Safavid dynasty and later by the Emirate of Afghanistan under Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901).

On 21 July 1848, under orders from the Báb, the Bábí leader Mullá Husayn raised the Black Standard in Mashhad (in Iran's Khorasan Province) and began a march westwards. The mission was most likely proclamatory but possibly also to rescue another Bábí leader, Quddús, who was under house arrest in Sárí. After being rebuffed at the town of Barfurush, the group took up making defensive fortifications at the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi. It is reported the Black Standard flew above the Bábí fortress until the end of the Battle of Fort Tabarsi.^[16][17] According to Denis MacEoin, the Babis under Boshru'i were on their mission of spreading Babism, "by preaching if possible, by force if necessary."^[18]

As Arab nationalism developed in the early 20th century, the black within the Pan-Arab colors was chosen to represent the Abbasid dynastic color.^[19]

The Ahmadiyya movement also employs black and white colours in its flag (Liwaa-i Ahmadiyya), first hoisted in 1939.^[20] Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the fourth caliph of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate, explained the symbolism of the colours black and white in terms of the concept of revelation and prophethood.^[21][22]

• Black Banner Organization
• Christian flag
• Islamic flags
• Jihadist flag
• List of black flags
• Tawhid
• Black Flag of Anarchism

Citations

Works cited

• Cook, David (2002). Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic. Darwin Press. ISBN 978-0-87850-142-7.
• Hinds, Martin (1996). Studies in Early Islamic History. Darwin Press. ISBN 978-0-87850-109-0.
• Nicolle, David (1993). Armies of the Muslim Conquest. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-279-0.^{[permanent dead link]}

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jihadist flags.

• Collection of imagery of black flags used in Islamic extremism
• The Black Flag (al-raya) at The Islamic Imagery Project, The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
• The Semiotics of a Black Flag (makingsenseofjihad.com)
• Usama Hasan, The Black Flags of Khurasan (unity1.wordpress.com)