FLAG OF IRAN: HISTORY AND MEANING - CULTURE VOCABULARY

The flag of Iran is the most important national symbol of this Asian Islamic republic. It is made up of three horizontal stripes of the same size. The upper one is green, the middle white and the lower one red. In the central part stands the shield of the country, which is the word Allah with stylized strokes. On the edges of the stripes is the inscription Allahu Akbar eleven times.

The colors green, white and red have represented Iran for centuries. However, it was at the beginning of the 20th century when they were officially incorporated into the country's flag. Historically, Persia had been represented by its monarchical symbols, which since the Safavid dynasty were the lion and the sun.

Flag of Iran. (Various, via Wikimedia Commons).

That was true throughout much of the dynasties up to the Pahlavi. In 1979, the Islamic Revolution turned Iran into a theocratic republic and, although all three stripes were maintained, religious symbols were added.

There is no single interpretation of colors. However, green is often associated with happiness and unity, white with freedom, and red with martyrdom, courage, fire and love.

History of the flag

The history of Persia is millenary, and with it, different pavilions have identified the region in various ways. The region, occupied since prehistoric times, began to be configured through different states and empires in ancient times. The Medes occupied the area around 678 BC, giving way to a succession of different forms of government.

Achaemenid Empire

By 550 BC Cyrus the Great seized power over the empire and founded the Achaemenid Empire. This movement was transformed into a regional one by unifying the different states of the area, which came to ally with the Persians. The empire led by Cyrus the Great expanded into Asia, northern Egypt, and Eastern Europe.

Precisely in this empire one of the most prominent symbols was the banner used by Cyrus the Great. Garnet-colored, a yellow mythological bird was imposed on the cloth.

Banner of Cyrus the Great in the Achaemenid Empire. (Sodacan, from Wikimedia Commons).

Sassanid empire

The Achaemenid Empire was one of the most important in the history of humanity and inhabited about 45% of the planet's population. An invasion by Alexander the Great put an end to this empire in 334 BC. Its duration was short, as before the death of Alexander the Great it was replaced by the Hellenic Seleucid Empire.

By the second century BC, the Parthian Empire seized power and they remained there until AD 224. It was in that year that control passed to the side of the Sassanid Empire. This monarchy became one of the most important empires in the area, as well as in the last Persian dynasty before the Islamic colonization. Its dominion extended for more than 400 years, until the year 654.

The flag of the Sassanid Empire used to be configured in a square shape, with a red border. Inside it, a purple square divided into several parts by yellow petals finished shaping it.

Flag of the Sassanid Empire. (Oneasy, from Wikimedia Commons).

Islamization of Persia

The wars of the Sassanid Empire with the Byzantine Empire motivated an Arab invasion of Iran. This led to an extended process of Islamization, in which Persia ceased to be a region believing in Zoroastrianism, moving to Islamism. First, the Rashidun Caliphate was established, succeeded by the Ummayad Caliphate and later by the Abbasid Caliphate.

Flag of the Abbasid Caliphate. (PavelD, from Wikimedia Commons).

During that period, different dynasties appeared that controlled parts of the territory in order to restore independence to Iran. This region was part of the Golden Age of Islam, but attempts at Arabization failed.

Ilkanato

Later, the country had Turkic influences and invasions, but its forms of government were adapted to those of Persia. However, between 1219 and 1221, Genghis Khan's troops occupied Iran in a bloody conquest that placed the region within the Mongol Empire. In 1256, Hulagu Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson, formed the Ilkhanate before the fall of the Mongol Empire.

This state inherited Buddhism and Christianity as religions. However, Islam remained ingrained in Persian culture and the Ilkhanate adapted. Its symbol was a yellow cloth that included a red square in its central part.

Ilkhanate flag. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

Timurid empire

The 14th century marked the end of the Ilkhanate. After the advance of the conqueror Timur, the Timurid Empire was established, extending through Central Asia until the 16th century, that is, for 156 years. Its characteristic symbol was a black cloth with three red circles.

Flag of the Timurid Empire. (User: Stannered, via Wikimedia Commons).

Safavid dynasty

At the beginning of the 16th century, Ismail I of Ardabil started the Safavid Dynasty in northwestern Iran. Over time, its authority spread throughout the Persian territory, even expanding to neighboring areas, to form Greater Iran. The Sunnism that had characterized Persian Islam was forcibly converted to Shi'ism through the Safavid forces.

Flag of Ismaíl I

During the entire period of this dynasty which lasted until 1736, three different flags were presented. The first of them was that of Ismaíl I himself, which consisted of a green cloth with a yellow circle at the top, representing the sun.

Flag of the Safavid dynasty under the reign of Ismaíl I. (1502-1524). (Sir Iain, from Wikimedia Commons).

Tahmasp Flag I

Tahmasp I made a significant change to the symbols. The sun happened to be in the central part and on it a sheep was included. The flag was the one in force until 1576.

Flag of the Safavid dynasty under the reign of Tahmasp I. (1524-1576). (Mysid, via Wikimedia Commons).

Flag of Ismail II

Finally, Ismaíl II established the last flag of the Safavid dynasty, which remained in force for 156 years, between 1576 and 1732. The big difference was that the sheep was replaced by a lion. The symbol of the lion and the sun became characteristic of the monarchy, and consequently of the Persian state, for centuries to come.

The meaning of this symbol is related to different Persian legends, such as the Shahnameh. The lion and the sun was more than the union of state and religion, since the sun is alleged cosmological explanations related to its divinity and the articulating role of the Shah.

Flag of the Safavid dynasty under the reign of Ismail II. (1576-1732). (Safavid_Flag.png: Orange Tuesday (talk) The original uploader was Orange Tuesday at English Wikipedia.derivative work: Himasaram, via Wikimedia Commons).

Apsarid dynasty

The end of the Safavid dynasty came between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, faced with the Ottoman and Russian threats. Pashtun rebels conquered the territory forming the Hotak dynasty in 1709. Their flag was a black cloth.

Flag of the Hotak dynasty. (1709-1738). (PavelD, from Wikimedia Commons).

This dynasty was very short, as the military Nader Shah conquered the territory, recovered the area of the Caucasus that had been occupied by the Russian and Ottoman Empires and imposed a control regime in Iran. Thus was born the Afsarid dynasty, which even expanded to India.

The Afsarid dynasty maintained several distinctive symbols. These consisted of triangular pavilions. The main two were horizontal stripes. The first of them was tricolor: blue, white and red.

Tricolor pavilion of the Afsarid dynasty. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

Similarly, there was the four-color version. This added a yellow stripe at the bottom.

Four-color pavilion of the Afsarid dynasty. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

In addition, Nader Shah had his triangular flag with a yellow background and red border. This included, again, the lion and the sun.

Nader Shah Pavilion. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

Zand dynasty

Nader Shah was assassinated, which generated a convulsion in the country and a situation of instability. Finally, Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty took power, thus initiating a new period of stability, but without the regional importance that the previous government had had, when the peoples of the Caucasus, among other regions, began to be autonomous.

During the Zand dynasty the lion and the sun were kept as symbols of the country. The difference in the symbols was that the triangular flag was now white with a green border. The symbol of the animal and the star was overlaid with a yellow color.

Pavilion of the Zand dynasty. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

This pavilion also featured a variant, in which the border also had a red stripe. In any case, the color green was avoided because it was related to Shiite Islam and the Safavid dynasty.

Flag of the Zand dynasty with red stripe. (Persis2001, from Wikimedia Commons).

Qajar dynasty

After Karim Khan's death in 1779, a civil war broke out in Iran, from which emerged the leadership of Agha Mohhamad Khan, founder of the Qajar dynasty in 1794.

The new regime waged wars with the Russian Empire to regain control of the Caucasus, without success. This meant that many Muslims from the area migrated to Iran. The regimes also faced a major famine situation between 1870 and 1871.

The symbols used by the Qajar dynasty were quite varied, although they maintained the same essence that came from previous regimes. These governments did not have a single flag during the different reigns, but they contemplated several with different uses.

Reign of Mohammad Khan Qajar

The first monarch, Mohammad Khan Qajar, wore a red cloth on which the lion and the sun were imposed in yellow. This was immersed in a light yellow circle.

Pavilion of Mohammad Khan Qajar. (Mysid, via Wikimedia Commons).

Reign of Fat'h Ali Shah

During the Fat'h Ali Shah government, three pavilions coexisted, which again maintained the symbolism, but varied in colors. The war battle was quite similar to that of the monarch Mohammad Khan Qajar, but featured the removal of the yellow circle and the enlargement of the symbol of the lion and the sun.

Fat'h Ali Shah war flag. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

In addition, a diplomatic flag was maintained, with the same symbol, but with a white background.

Diplomatic flag of Fat'h Ali Shah. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

A peace flag also coexisted with these, quite similar to those used in the Safavid dynasty. This consisted of a green cloth with the symbol of the lion and the sun on top. However, this image is different from the previous ones, as the sun's rays are barely visible and the lion has a sword.

Fat'h Ali Shah peace flag. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

Reign of Mohammad Shah

When Mohammad Shah was on the throne, the symbols converged into one. The sun was enlarged and the lion was held with the sword. This image was overlaid on a white cloth.

Flag of Mohammad Shah. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

Reign of Nasser al-Din Shah

The lion and the sun remained in the reign of Nasser al-Din Shah. On a white cloth the symbol was added, which had a green border on three of its sides, except for the one that borders the flagpole.

Flag of Nasser al-Din Shah. (Orange Tuesday at en.wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons).

In addition to this, there was also a naval flag, which added to the green strip on the edges, incorporated a red one. Finally there was a civil flag, which kept both stripes, but removed the lion and the sun.

Naval ensign of Nasser al-Din Shah. (Orange Tuesday, from Wikimedia Commons).

In this period the Iranian horizontal tricolor acquired importance. This was designed in the mid-19th century by Amir Kabir, who had been Grand Vizier of Persia. Their versions were varied in regards to the dimensions of the stripes. At that time it did not acquire official status.

Tricolor flag of Iran designed by Amir Kabir. (Orange Tuesday, via Wikimedia Commons).

Constitutional Revolution

The reigning monarchical system rapidly weakened in the last decades of the 19th century due to the increase in international concessions on Iranian territory. That promoted the establishment of the Constitutional Revolution in 1905, which ended absolutism. In this way the first constitution was approved and the first parliament was elected.

In 1907 the first flag in this system was established. Since then, three symbols have always coexisted. The civil flag only had three horizontal stripes, the state flag was shown with the shield, and the naval flag, with the shield and some spikes in its environment. The proportion of the 1907 flag was elongated and the red color was extremely light.

State Flag of the Sublime State of Persia. (1907-1933). (SeNeKa, via Wikimedia Commons).

Mohammed Ali Shah was forced to abdicate in 1909, which led to the foreign occupation of the country. The Russians entered from the north in 1911, occupying part of that area.

During the First World War, the territory faced a partial British occupation, in addition to different Ottoman attacks such as those perpetrated through the Armenian and Assyrian genocides.

Pahlavi dynasty

In 1921, the Iranian Cossack Brigade deposed the last Shah of the Qajar dynasty, imposing Reza Khan, a former general of that military division, as prime minister. Later, and with the support of the British Empire, Reza Shah was declared, thus the Pahlavi dynasty was born.

In 1933, the new Iranian monarchy established a flag practically the same as the previous one. The main difference was the darkening of the red color, in addition to the fact that the facial gestures of the sun disappeared.

Flag of the Imperial State of Persia (1933-1935) and of the Imperial State of Iran (1935-1964). (Orange Tuesday, via Wikimedia Commons).

Soviet secessionist attempts

Subsequently, Iran was plunged into the dynamics of World War II. Reza Shah showed sympathy with Nazism, before an Anglo-Soviet invasion was carried out in 1942 that forced Reza Shah to abdicate his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

In 1943 the Tehran Conference took place, where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met. In it the independence of Iran was agreed upon at the end of the war.

People's Government of Azerbaijan

However, the Soviets established two puppet states in East Azerbaijan in 1946. One of them was the People's Government of Azerbaijan, with its capital in Tabriz.

Its flag was also a tricolor with the symbol of the lion and the sun in the center, but adding some spikes around it and a crescent moon at the top.

Flag of the People's Government of Azerbaijan. (1945-1946). (Orange Tuesday, via Wikimedia Commons).

Republic of Mahabad

The second puppet government was an attempted Kurdish state. The Republic of Mahabad, with its capital in Mahabad, was established as a socialist state around the USSR, but without recognition. Their flag was a red-green-white tricolor with a communist heraldry shield.

Flag of the Republic of Mahabad. (1946-1947). (TRAJAN 117 This image was created with Adobe Photoshop., From Wikimedia Commons).

These two secessionist attempts to northern Iran ended in 1946 with the Iran Crisis. The Soviet Union, after pressure and confrontations, was forced to fulfill its agreement and withdraw from Iranian territory.

End of the Pahlavi dynasty

Democratization in Iran continued to advance, and in 1951 Mohammad Mosaddegh was appointed prime minister. He nationalized the Iranian oil industry, which led to his overthrow in 1953 in a coup orchestrated from the United States with the support of the Shah. The monarchical government increased its authoritarianism and tried to impose an absolute secular state by force.

In 1963, the dimensions of the flag changed. Now the symbol has become a shorter rectangle, in measures quite similar to those of conventional flags.

Flag of the Imperial State of Iran. (1964-1979). (Orange Tuesday, via Wikimedia Commons).

The discontent that formed began to be reflected in various ways. The cleric Ruhollah Khomeini was one of its main exponents, so he was sent into exile. In 1973 the oil price crisis disrupted the Iranian economy. The Shah's regime was weak during that decade and was eventually overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Islamic Republic of Iran

The most important regime change in Iran's history took place in 1979, through the Islamic Revolution. After a year of movement, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi left the country, before which Ruhollah Khomeini returned from his exile in Paris and formed a government.

The fall of the regime led to the installation, since February 1979, of the Interim Government of Iran, led by Mehdi Bazargan. This new government removed, for the first time in centuries, the lion and the sun from the flag, leaving only the tricolor. In March 1979, the creation of the Islamic republic was approved through a referendum.

Flag of the Interim Government of Iran. (1979-1980). (By Yaddah Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons).

Subsequently, in December, the constitution that created the Islamic Republic of Iran was approved. The new system that was formed left the head of state in Khomeini as the Supreme Leader of Iran, while the head of government would be a democratically elected president.

Current flag

On July 29, 1980, the new flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran came into force. Having discarded the monarchical symbols gave way to the religious ones. The eighteenth article of the constitution established the composition of the national flag, with the emblem in the central part and the inscription Allah is large on the edges of the stripes in Kufic calligraphy.

Meaning of the flag

The Iranian flag is not only rich in history, but also in meaning. Green, one of the three colors of the flag, became the distinctive color of Persia over the centuries, although it was discarded by various dynasties. Furthermore, it signifies growth, unity, vitality and represents nature and the Iranian languages.

White, for its part, is the symbol of freedom, while red is that of martyrdom. This color also represents bravery, strength, love and warmth. The position of the colors on the flag may represent Cirius the Great's victory over the Medes.

Islamic symbols

After the Islamic Revolution a new emblem was established. Its designer was Hamid Nadimi and it represents the union of various Islamic elements, such as the word Allah. The symbol is a monogram that also includes four stylized crescent moons and a line. The shape of this symbol represents those who have died for Iran and their patriotism.

Finally, the flag also contains the takbir or Allahu Akbar, an expression that means Allah is the greatest. The inscription is written 22 times: 11 in the green strip and 11 in the red one.

The number 22 symbolizes the night of the 22nd of Bahman, according to the Persian calendar, in which the first call was made from the National Radio of Iran as 'the voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran', although it had not yet been officially declared.

References

Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. (1979). Article 18. Recovered from servat.unibe.ch.
Farrokh, K. (August 14, 2009). The Lion and Sun Motif of Iran: A brief Analysis. The official website of Dr. Kaveh Farrokh. Recovered from kavehfarrokh.com.
Katouzian, H. (2010). The Persians: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran. Yale University Press.
Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Iran. (sf). Flag Description and Meaning. Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Iran. Recovered from en.iran.ir.
Shapur, A. Flags i. of Persia. Encyclopædia Iranica. 12-27. Recovered from iranicaonline.org.
Smith, W. (2014). Flag of Iran. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Recovered from britannica.com.
Yarshater, E. (1968). The Cambridge History of Iran. Cambridge University Press.

FLAG OF IRAN: HISTORY AND MEANING - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025