Historical Flags (Afghanistan)

Last modified: 2023-07-03 by
Keywords: afghanistan | historical |
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• Introduction
• 1901-1919
• 1919-1928
• 1928-September 1928
• September 1928 - January 1929
• January 1929 - October 1929
• October 1929 - 1930
• 1930-1973
• 1973-1974
• May 1974 - April 1978
• April 1978 - October 1978
• October 1978 - April 1980
• April 1980 - November 1987
• November 1987 - April 1992
• April 1992 - December 1992
• December 1992 - September 1996
• September 1996 - November 2001 (Taliban regime)

See also:

• Afghanistan

Other sites:

• A comprehensive political and vexillological history of Afghanistan, by Jaume Ollé (Spanish text only):
  • I : Pre-1901 period
  • II : Emirate
  • III : Kingdom
  • IV : Republic
  • V : Democratic Republic
  • VI : Islamic State
  • VII : Islamic Emirate
• Flags of Afghanistan at the Afghanland.com website

Afghanistan has been deemed the winner of "the most frequent flag changes in the twentieth century" contest:

• 1901-1919 Black field with central white emblem of mosque, flags and wreath.
• 1919-1928 Same, except central emblem surrounded by eight pointed sunburst.
• 1928-Sep.1928 Similar to 1901.
• Sep.1928-Jan.1929 Vertical black, red, green. Central white emblem of mountains, sun, wreath, topped by a star.
• Jan.1929-Oct.1929 Similar to 1919-1928.
• Oct.1929-1930 Same three-striped field, but using earlier emblem surrounded by sunburst.
• 1930-1973 Same three-striped field, central white emblem of mosque, flags, and wreath.
• 1973-1974 Same as the previous one, without the date in the emblem.
• May 1974-Apr.1978 Horizontal field, lower half green, upper half is black over red. Emblem in upper hoist of eagle, pulpit, wreath, sunburst.
• Apr.1978-Oct.1978 Same as previous, no emblem.
• Oct.1978-Apr.1980 Red Field with gold emblem in upper hoist consisting of script characters (I believe it says Flag Party) wreath, and star.
• Apr.1980-Nov.1987 Three equal horizontal stripes of black over red over green. Multicolor emblem in upper hoist of pulpit, book, wreath, sunburst, topped by cogwheel and red star.
• Nov.1987-Apr.1992 Same as previous, but emblem lacks book and red star. Also the cogwheel was relocated to the bottom and the green "horizon" below the sunburst is now curved.
• Apr.1992-Dec.1992 Three equal horizontal stripes of green, white, black with white text on green stripe and black text on white stripe.
• Dec.1992- Same three stripes, but golden emblem centered on the flag.
• 1996- The Taliban regime assumes power in Kabul (although the regime was not widely recognised internationally).

Nick Artimovich, 19 March 1996

Peter Laursen made some very nice vectorial images of historical flags of Afghanistan, which he sent me, and for the purpose of the list he made GIFs of standard FOTW size. That is a pity since he had made very nice details of many emblems used on them, which were lost in the process. I quote Peter, "Here I send images of the Afghanistan flag. Of course I am not sure that all of them are correct, but it is at present my best bid of the Afghanistan flag history. My sources are Flag Bulletin, Flag Master, lots of books and my local flagmaker." I thought the flag GIFs made by Peter Laursen could be re-exported to give a bit better quality, so I did that.

Zeljko Heimer, 29 August 1997

I have made around 65 vector images of Afghan flags and written the corresponding political and vexillological history [in Spanish]. The source of each flag (except one that I cannot remember) is quoted. All the images are copyrighted, but you can use them for personal and non-commercial use.

Jaume Ollé, 1 April 1998