Ottoman Empire: Sultan's flags

Last modified: 2002-11-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: crescent (white) | star (white) | tughra | sultan |
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• An example of Sultan's standard
• The tughra
• Naval flag of the Sultan

See also:

• Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman Empire: Index of all related pages

Other site of interest:

• Reading the tughra (in Turkish)

An example of Sultan's standard

by Zeljko Heimer

The flag is red with white device called tughra. Tughra was the imperial personal sign, kind of monogramme, that consisted of delicately intervoven arab letters. The background is pinky red, because it seems to me that this was the actual colour used, and that is the colour used on most paintings I have seen. It might be that actual colour was pure red, but changed through time, or that the real red was hard to acquire.

Zeljko Heimer, 19 June 1996

This "Ottoman Imperial Standard" with the tughra never existed. The Tughra on the standard is a European bastardization of a Sultan's tughra (who knows which one).

Hassan Kamel Kelisli-Morali, 16 August 1998

I think that this tughra belonged to Mehmed V (1909-1918).

Jaume Ollé, 21 June 1996.

The Tughra

by Goren Shaked

Here is Abdul-Hamid's personal signature (Abdul Hamid the Second). it is very close in design to the signature on hte flag shown above. Please note that the signatures of Ottoman rulers, usually have a heavy tribute to Allah, and less to themself. This is, probably the reason for the resemblance in the designs.

Jaume Ollé, 21 June 1996

This tughra belongs to HM Padishah Abdulhamid II Han. It reads: Abdulhamid Han bin Abdulmedjid al-Muzafar daiman, which means Abdulhamid son of Abdulmedjid the ever victorious. The writing on the upper right corner reads Gazi which was a title adopted by all Ottoman Padishahs (emperors) and that means "fighter".

Hassan Kamel Kelisli-Morali, 16 August 1998

Naval flag of the Sultan

by Zeljko Heimer

The naval flag of the Sultan is pink with a kind of star in the center (similar to that of Emirate of Afghanistan) with the white moon crescent and the star (five points) in the interior. The flag of the Imperial retinue is identical to the naval but with swallow tail.

Zeljko Heimer, 19 June 1996