Egypt in Ottoman Empire

Last modified: 2002-06-14 by ivan sache
Keywords: ottoman | khedive | crescent (white) | crescents: 3 | star: 7 points (white) | stars: 3 (white) | mameluk |
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• Old flags from uncertain sources
• Ottoman flag in XIXth century
• Khedive flag

See also:

• Egypt
• Egypt: Historical flags
• Ottoman Empire
  • Ottoman flags depicted in a Dutch chart
• Tunisia
• Libya
• Memel -or-Mameluks? (confusion between Memel and Mameluk flags)

Old flags from uncertain sources

by Mario Fabretto

The knowledge of old Turkish flag isn't very clear even if we know that a lot of flags were used. This flag is quite common on flag books and charts from the middle of 18th century and until the middle of the 19th century. Among them I remember Norie/Hobbs (1848) [noh48], Rosenfeld (1883), Flaggen Almanack (ca. 1844). The flag didn't appear on Le Gras (1858) [leg58] so I think that its use ended in the first half of the 19th century. The only thing we can say is that flags with many stripes and irregular shape were quite common for the merchant ships sailing from north-african ports. From many captured flags we also know that similar flags were used on land also, but with different colors and arrangements. The particular use of them is obscure.

Mario Fabretto, 13 July 1997

I read that the green, yellow, green triband is the traditional flag of the Mameluks. The Mameluks were defeated by Bonaparte (1798), but came back after some years (1808) and were again defeated and masacred by Mehmed Ali (1 March 1811). The greater part of the Mameluks were ethnical Cherkess.

Jaume Ollé, 9 July 1997

I found in my old (1884) atlas:
Egypt: Horizontal tricolor with three equal stripes green, yellow, green.

Josh Fruhlinger, 11 May1996

The "Egyptian" flag, from a copy of People's Atlas of the World published in April 1899 (almost exactly 100 years ago) by Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick of Springfield, Ohio. The very first page is a color chart of "Flags of Various Nations".

Chris Young, 26 March 1999

by Chris Young

Ottoman flag in the XIXth century

by Zeljko Heimer

"The Ottoman flag in the XIXth century normally bore a white star and crescent on its red field. "

Quoted from Whitney Smith [smi75c] by Nick Artimovich, 23 April 1996

Khedive flag

by Zeljko Heimer

"Muhammad Ali did introduce one distinctive new flag which eventually became the first real Egyptian national flag. Perhaps to symbolize the victory of his armies in 3 continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) or his own sovereignty over Egypt, Nubia, and the Sudan, Ali set three white crescents and three stars on a red field. (...) In 1882, Egyptian nationalists, seeking to take leadership in their own land by deposing the khedive, provided the pretext Britain sought for occupying the country. A promise was made that Her Majesty's troops would leave "as soon as the state of the country and the organization of proper means for the maintenance of the Khedivial authority will admit of it. "

Quoted from Whitney Smith [smi75c] by Nick Artimovich, 23 April 1996

This flag was the personal standard of the Khedive.

Josh Fruhlinger, 13 February 1996

The red flag with three crescents and stars, may have had a wider use than purely by the Khedive. I believe Kitchener's 1898 Anglo-Egyptian expedition to the Sudan carried it (along with the Union Jack of course!)

Roy Stilling, 14 February1996