Afghanistan .af

Meaning of the Flag

The national flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was adopted on 15 August 2021, with the Taliban's victory in the 2001–2021 war. It features a white field with a black Shahada inscribed. The white stands for "the (Islamic Movement of Taliban's) purity of faith and government"; the flag incorporated the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, after 1997. This current Afghan flag likely was inspired by the historic Umayyad caliphate, which began the Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent, the Ghazwa-e-Hind: Islam entered Afghanistan with the Umayyad invasion, begun in 663–665 A.D. It is still used to represent Afghanistan at the Olympic Games and other international sporting events.

Meaning of Flag Colors

Red, Green, White, Black

Flag History

1. 1880–1901
   

   Plain black flag of the Emirate of Afghanistan under Abdur Rahman Khan.
2. 1901–1919
   

   Black field with a state seal, used under Habibullah Khan.
3. 1928–1929
   

   Tricolor of black, red, and green introduced by King Amanullah Khan after independence.
4. 1929–1973
   

   Kingdom of Afghanistan — tricolor with mosque-and-altar emblem.
5. 1974–1978
   

   Republic of Afghanistan under Daoud Khan, eagle-bearing emblem.
6. 1978–1987
   

   Democratic Republic of Afghanistan — red field after the Saur Revolution.
7. 1996–2001 & 2021–present
   

   White flag of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban government) with the Shahada in black calligraphy.
8. 2004–2021
   

   Islamic Republic of Afghanistan — black/red/green tricolor with white national emblem.
9. 2021–present
   

   Current national flag, in use since 2021.

The first flag of Afghanistan was used during the Hotak dynasty in 1709. The original flag of Afghanistan featured an all-black design.

Since that time, the nation has had 27 different flags. During the 20th century it was changed 19 times – more than any other nation in the world. Most Aghanistan flags used the colors of black, red and green (colors first introduced in 1928). The flags continued to change after every few years, many just for a year.

Fun Facts

Afghanistan has had 27 different national flags since the 18th century.

Meaning of Afghanistan

Afghanistan got its current name in 1919, when the nation won its independence from the United Kingdom. The name Afghānistān means "land of the Afghans", which originates from the ethnonym Afghan. The last part of the name, -stān is a Persian suffix for "place".

Historically, the name Afghan mainly designated Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group of Afghanistan. Pashtuns are an Iranian ethnic group constituting around 48% of the country's total population.

Some modern scholars suggest that the word "Afghan" is derived from words awajan/apajan in Avestan and ava-han/apa-han in Sanskrit, which means "killing, striking, throwing and resisting, or defending." Under the Sasanians, and possibly the Parthian Empire, the word was used to refer to men of a certain Persian sect.

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