Flags of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire used various flags and naval ensigns during its history. The crescent and star came into use in the second half of the 18th century. A ' (decree) from 1793 required that the ships of the Ottoman Navy were to use a red flag with the star and crescent in white. In 1844, a version of this flag, with a five-pointed star, was officially adopted as the Ottoman national flag. The decision to adopt a national flag was part of the Tanzimat reforms which aimed to modernize the Ottoman state in line with the laws and norms of contemporary European states and institutions.

The star and crescent design later became a common element in the national flags of Ottoman successor states in the 20th century.

The current flag of Turkey is essentially the same as the late Ottoman flag, but has more specific legal standardizations (regarding its measures, geometric proportions, and exact tone of red) that were introduced with the Turkish Flag Law on 29 May 1936. Before the legal standardization, the star and crescent could have slightly varying slimness or positioning depending on the rendition.

Early flag

Pre-modern Ottoman armies used the horse-tail standard or tugh rather than flags.

Such standards remained in use alongside flags until the 19th century. A depiction of a tugh appears in the ' by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1718).

War flags came into use by the 16th century. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Ottoman war flags often depicted the bifurcated Zulfiqar sword, often misinterpreted in Western literature as showing a pair of scissors.

The crescent symbol appears in flags attributed to Tunis from as early as the 14th century ('), long before Tunis fell under Ottoman rule in 1574. But the crescent as a symbol also had 14th-century associations with the Ottoman military

and millennium-long associations with the city of Istanbul,

which became the Ottoman capital after its conquest in 1453. The Spanish Navy Museum in Madrid shows two Ottoman naval flags dated 1613; both are swallow-tailed, one green with a white crescent near the hoist, the other white with two red stripes near the edges of the flag and a red crescent near the hoist.

File:Szigetvár before the siege.jpg|Various Ottoman flags and tughs displayed before the Siege of Szigetvár in 1566

File:Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, ms. Or. 9, fol. 45r.jpg|Plain red banners for the Sultan's retinue. From the Turkish Costume Book by Lambert de Vos, 1574.

File:Assalto per mare e per terra al isola, e S. Michele. 15.07.1565.png|Ottoman flags in a 1581 fresco by Matteo Pérez depicting the Great Siege of Malta

File:Zulfikar flag.svg|Zulfikar flag typically in use during the 16th and 17th centuries. The design is a rough approximation of the Zulfikar flag used by Selim I in the 1510s.

File:Zulfiqar flag at Guruslău (1601).svg|Zulfiqar flag captured during the Battle of Guruslău in 1601

File:Sokulluzade Hasan Pasha (center) leading in troops in 1590. Divan of Mahmud Abd al-Baki, 1590–95.jpg|Sokulluzade Hasan Pasha leading in troops with a Zulfiqar flag in 1590. Divan of Mahmud Abd al-Baki, 1590–95

File:Coat of arms of Moldavia under Scarlat Callimachi, Sfântul Spiridon version.svg|Coat of arms of Moldavia, . As supporters, flags which Sultan Mahmud II () may have granted to Scarlat Callimachi ().

</gallery>

<!--primary refs to be worked into article with proper documentation

Catalan Atlas, Cresques Abraham 1375
Portolan Chart, Petrus Roselli, 1466
Portolan Chart, Albino de Canepa, 1489

-->

Crescent flag

thumb|Flag used by the Ottoman Empire between .

The simple crescent flag started to appear in the Ottoman Empire from its foundation in 1453, and was reported as late as 1780 in the Battle of Kagul.

thumb|Flag of the Ottoman Empire (1590–1646)

File:Siege of Rhodes 1480.jpg|Siege of Rhodes, 1480

File:Ottoman ship in the illustrated travelogue by Konrad (Conrad) Grünenberg, Beschreibung der Reise von Konstanz nach Jerusalem, dated to around 1487. Baden State Library Karlsruhe, Cod. St. Peter pap. 32, Fol. 50r.jpg|Ottoman ship, 1487

File:1590 Portolan chart of the Mediterranean Sea and Europe.png|Portolan chart, 1590

File:Slave Markt .tif|Slave market, 1684

File:Gli Dardanelli (2) - Sandrart Jacob Von - 1686.jpg|Dardanels, 1686

File:Le bombardement d'Alger en 1688.jpg|Alger, 16881700

File:Schlacht bei Ollasch in Ungarn im Jahre 1696.jpg|Ottoman flag in 1696

File:Turkey - Ca. 1720 map with 88 marine flags - Carte des Pavillons Accompagnee D'Observations Pour en Faire Comprende le Blazon et les differentes devises aussy bien que d'une table alphabetique pour les trouver facilement (cropped).jpg|Ottoman Coat of Arms in 1720

</gallery>

Naval standards

thumb|Ottoman naval flags according to Bowles's "Universal display of the naval flags of all nations in the world" (1783)

Numerous authors, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries reported on the variety of naval flags in the Ottoman Empire, starting with Bowles's "Universal display of the naval flags of all nations in the world" (1783). The designs of the flags depended on the rank or geographical base of their owners.

File:"Grand Standard of the Grand Turk" naval flag, according to Bowles (1783).svg|"Grand standard of the Grand Turk": one of the several types of Ottoman naval standards from 1686 to the 18th century.

File:Konstantiniyye Naval Ensign.png|Naval flag of Constantinople, also in Bowles's Universal Display of the Naval Flags of all Nations (1783)

File:Blue Ottoman Flag.svg|"Blue Turks' flag", also in Bowles's Universal Display of the Naval Flags of all Nations (1783)

File:Turkish Purple (Danker & Bowles).svg|"Turkish Purple flag", also in Bowles's Universal Display of the Naval Flags of all Nations (1783)

File:Ottoman bashaw flag 18th century.png|Ottoman bashaw flag 18th–1807 century

File:Turkish vizier flag according to Naval flags of the World, Bowles 1783.png|Turkish vizier flag according to Naval flags of the World, Bowles 1783

</gallery>

Crescent and star flag

thumb|The official eight-pointed star flag used by the Ottoman Empire between 1793 and 1844 as the official state flag.

The star and crescent design is reported as early as 1526 at the Battle of Mohács, or the Siege of Wien in 1683, and continues to appear more systematically after 1793, on Ottoman flags of the 19th century. The white star and crescent moon with a red background was introduced as the flag of the Ottoman Empire in 1844.

File:Battle of Mohács 1526.png|Battle of Mohács in 1526, by Johann Schreier (1555)

File:Anonym Entsatz Wien 1683.jpg|Siege of Wien, 1683

File:Ottoman army banner in the 1721 Hamse.svg|Army banner with crescent, as depicted in a 1721 illustration to 'Ata'i's Hamse

File:Ottoman army banner as rendered by Hochenleitter (1788).svg|Crescent flag reported during the war with Austria in 1788 by Lucas Hochenleitter

File:Turkish flag used during the battle of Vienna (1683).png|link=file:///Turkish_flag_used_during_the_battle_of_Vienna_(1683).png|Flag used during the siege of Vienna in 1683

</gallery>

Source of the Star and Crescent symbol

It has been suggested that the star-and-crescent used in Ottoman flags of the 19th century had been adopted from the Byzantine. Franz Babinger (1992) suggests this possibility, noting that the crescent alone has a much older tradition also with Turkic tribes in the interior of Asia. The crescent and star is found on the coinage of Byzantium since the 4th century BC and was depicted on Byzantine Empire's coins and shields of Christian warrior saints till the 13th century. Parsons (2007) notes that the star and crescent was not a widespread motive on the coinage of Byzantium at the time of the Ottoman conquest. Turkish historians tend to stress the antiquity of the crescent (not star-and-crescent) symbol among the early Turkic states in Asia.

Imperial standards

thumb|Adopted in 1882, the [[coat of arms of the Ottoman Empire featured a green flag at left (representing the Rumelia Eyalet) and red flag at right (representing the Anatolia Eyalet and the other Asian eyalets).]]

The imperial standard displayed the sultan's tughra, often on a pink or bright red background.

File:Imperial standard of the Ottoman Sultan.svg|Imperial Standard of the Ottoman Sultan

File:Naval standard of the Ottoman Sultan.svg|Naval Standard of the Ottoman Sultan

File:Soldiers 1900.png|Standards used by the Ottoman Army in 1900

</gallery>

The standard used by the last Caliph, Abdulmejid II (between 19 November 1922 – 3 March 1924) consisted of a green flag with a star and crescent in white on a red oval background within a rayed ornament, all in white.

File:Caliphate standard of Abdulmejid II (1922–1924).svg|Caliphate Standard of Abdulmejid II

</gallery>

Army Flags and Standards with Shahada

The Ottoman army often used verses from the Quran and Shahada on their flags. This tradition continued during the First World War. When Ottoman Turkey joined the war on the side of the Central Powers in 1914, it declared a jihad against the Entente States. The modern Ottoman Turkish army used the Ottoman state coat of arms on one side of their standard regimental flags and Shahada on the other. The Ottoman regimental flags consisted of gold writings and the state emblem on a red background. After the empire was abolished in 1922, this practice continued for a while in modern Turkey.

File:HGM Türkische Standarte 1683.jpg|Standard of the Ottoman Army at Battle of Vienna (1683)

File:Οθωμανικό λάβαρο το οποίο απέσπασαν οι Βενετοί ως τρόπαιο όταν εκ - Peeters Jacob - 1690.jpg|Ottoman Flag at Morea (1690)

File:Hellenic War Museum Banners (27977335343).jpg|Ottoman Regimental Standards with Ottoman National Flag

File:Ottoman Regiment Flag.svg|One Side of Ottoman Turkish Regimental Standard with Shahada which was used in World War I (1914)

File:Ottoman regimental flag at Kanlisirt.jpg|Ottoman Turkish Regimental Standard with Shahada in Gallipoli campaign (1915)

</gallery>

References

External links

ko:오스만 제국의 국기

Early flag

Crescent flag

Naval standards

Crescent and star flag

Source of the Star and Crescent symbol

Imperial standards

Army Flags and Standards with Shahada

See also

References

External links