Flags2

The national flag of Saudi Arabia has maintained its basic characteristics -- the Shahada, written in white Arabic script over a white sword against a green background -- for many decades. The Shahada, is the Islamic profession of faith ("There is no god but God and Muhammad is the Prophet of God") on solid green was an old flag, connected to the Wahhabi reformist movement of the late 18th century, with whose religious drive the Al Saud family first rose to power. The sword was added in 1902, when Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman Al Saud ("Ibn Saud" to the British) established himself as Sultan of the Nejd.

There seem to have been three major design variations over the years. The earliest flag had a very simplified version of the inscription on a rather square field with a very white heading at the hoist.







The next stage may have been introduced at the time of the unification of the country, under the name Kingdom of the Hijaz and of Nejd and its Dependencies' in February 1927. The inscription in this case was in the complicated thuluth script and filled nearly the entire field of the flag.



In 1973, a Royal decree established a precise design, in which the inscription was condensed to one-eighth the flag's area and the weapon was changed from a curved saber to a straight Arab sword. Recently (1984) a further modification has been introduced in the national flag: the hilt in the previous design has been replaced by a simpler form. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to obtain a Royal decree or other legal instrument establishing this design as the exclusive one for the national flag.