Red Morocco Flag with green star

Red Morocco Flag with green star

Red Morocco Flag with green star: “There are two flags in Morocco. A national flag with a green star in a pentagram on a red background, and a second, green flag with a gold star, the emblem of the Alawites. A close look at royal ceremonial is all it takes to see this. Every time the monarch reviews the Royal Guard, he bows to the dynastic flag.

Mohammed V raised the red and green flag for the first time in 1947, in one of the pavilions of the royal palace in Rabat, following his speech in Tangiers. “Even though Sultan Moulay Youssef signed the dahir instituting the red and green flag under pressure from the protectorate, the Alawite house has always sought to distinguish itself from it. When Sultan Mohammed V saw that the national movement had appropriated this flag, he made it the official state flag, while safeguarding the dynastic flag,”

Abdelkrim El Khattabi:

THE EPHEMERAL FLAG OF THE RIF
From 1920, in the Spanish-occupied North, the war of pacification raged on. In the rugged mountains of the Rif, Mohamed Abdelkrim El Khattabi’s guerrillas harassed the Spanish army and scored some stunning victories, most notably the battle of Anoual in 1921. Extending his authority over a large part of the Rif mountains, the leader of the insurrection adopted an Ottoman-inspired red flag, emblazoned with a white square, itself adorned with a crescent and a six-pointed star. Self-proclaimed Emir, Abdelkrim El Khattabi played on the feeling of religious rejection to wage war against Spain and France. He was crushed by the 400,000-strong Franco-Spanish army in 1925, equipped with a strong air force and artillery. The short-lived Emir of the Rif was exiled a year later. When 18-year-old Mohammed V ascended the throne in 1927, the red flag with the green star was once again flying in every region of the kingdom.

FROM BAGHDAD TO MARRAKECH:

All vexillologists – those historians who study the history of flags – are unanimous: there is no known trace of a flag in Morocco before the 11th century. We have to go back to the era of Sultan Youssef Ibn Tachfin (1009-1106), founder of the Almoravid dynasty, to find the first trace of an official kingdom banner. In his quest to legitimize his power, which he extended from the Sahara to the Iberian Peninsula, and to gain the support of the orthodox ulama, Ibn Tachfin placed himself under the blessing of the Baghdad caliph, Abu-Jaâfr Al-Qâim bi-amr Allah, the honorary head of Dar al Islam. He adopted the black flag, the sign of power of the Abbasids, officially masters of the Muslim world, with the notable exception of Andalusia. “Morocco had no deep-rooted tradition in the art of symbolism and the trappings of power”, recalls Nabil Mouline.

Red Morocco Flag with green star

Around 1097, in the Anti-Atlas mountains, a man named Mohamed Ibn Toumert was born. His precocious curiosity led him to travel to the East and settle in Baghdad, where he imbibed a rigorist reading of Islam. Over the years, he cobbled together a new doctrine, slightly inspired by Shiism, aimed at establishing a new caliphate in the Muslim world. Back in Morocco, his positions offended the ulemas of the Marrakech court.

With the support of a confederation of Atlas tribes annoyed by the arrogance of the Almoravids, which he considered decadent, Ibn Toumert, who became El Mehdi because of his self-proclaimed messianism, fomented a revolt and launched the first assaults on Marrakech. Ibn Toumart died in 1130. His disciple and successor, Abd al-Mumin, crushed the Almoravid dynasty in 1147, before expanding eastwards into Andalusia. The standard of the young Almohad dynasty became white, the color of the Umayyads. “It was from this date onwards that the color white became the outward sign of mourning and festivities in Morocco, unlike the Orient, where the color black was retained”, explains the historian.

THE VICTORIOUS STANDARD:

Between the 12th and 17th centuries, the flag, as an outward sign of power and strength, evolved with the splendors and decadence of the dynasties that ruled the country. After the Marinids and Wattassids came the Saadis (1554-1659). Under the latter, the kingdom, at the height of its power, adopted the Liwae al Mansour (The Victorious Standard), named after the powerful Saâdian sultan Ahmad al-Mansour, known as Ad-Dahbi (The Golden One).

His power extended as far as the Senegal River and a large part of today’s Sahel. The power and military victories of the Sultan’s armies helped establish the flag tradition,” explains Nabil Mouline. The army was composed of five corps, with a detachment led by the sultan in the middle. He was surrounded by the bearers of the famous white Liwae al Mansour, which measured four meters by three, and six other flags of different colors, to set it off. Two of these flags still exist in Spanish museums.

From 1663 onwards, the Saadian dynasty scattered into several small kingdoms. The country descended into chaos for sixty years, punctuated by multiple incursions by foreign powers. In the midst of this disorder, populations of freshly expelled Andalusians (the famous Moriscos) settled in Rabat and plundered the Atlantic waters, pillaging the “Christian” ships that sailed along the coast. These pirates, feared the world over, hoisted the red flag on their boats. In a major offensive to reunify Morocco, the Alawite sultan Moulay Rachid, proclaimed in Fez in 1666, later annexed Rabat. “After sixty years of chaos, Morocco had lost its traditions of military pageantry. The Alawites naturally adopted the red flag as the emblem of their dynasty”, concludes the historian.

False flag?

BORN UNDER THE WRONG STAR
It was the 1948 edition of the Larousse dictionary, which featured a red Moroccan flag with a six-pointed star, that gave rise to the confusion over the current Moroccan flag. The six-pointed star – known as the Star of Solomon or the Star of David – has been the subject of controversy among historians ever since, due to its symbolism linked to Judaism. According to some, the flag popularized by Larousse is the result of a simple error. What is certain is that the “seal marked by the six-pointed star” has been adopted by all Middle Eastern civilizations. Several countries, including Morocco, minted coins bearing this symbol, and the official documents of the Cherifian Empire bore the seal of Solomon. With the birth of the State of Israel, which made the Star of David its symbol, the last coins bearing this symbol gradually disappeared”, explains a historian.