After completion of very successful Philatelic exhibition in Cairo on Rabindranth Tagore held in commemoration of his 150 years of birth, I have come back to Kolkata and now once again geared up to resume my blog which was in dormant for quite some time. The exhibition in Cairo was greatly publicised by all the news papers in Cairo. I am prompted to reproduce here at least one from the Egyptian Gazette of Saturday, July 9, 2011 just a day after the biggest rally when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians staged one of their biggest demonstrations in Cairo at Tahrir Square on 8th July to demand swift justice for victims of the former regime.
In Metro Rail with the demonstators on their way to
Tahrir Square.
At Tahrir Square on 8th July 2011
Page six of the Egyptian Gazette , Cairo of the same date
Let me now discuss about the Egyptian National Flag to the best of my ability and knowledge. I shall be glad if anybody correct me where I have gone wrong.
Egypt had a
number of National flags. Under the Turkish rule Egypt’s flag was ‘Red and bore
three Crescents, each with a five pointed star within its horns, all in white’.
The flag was in vogue from 1914 to 1922.
On becoming an
independent kingdom in 1922, Egypt changed her flag to ‘Green with one white Crescent’.
The flag remained its National status till 1958.
King Farouk
had no less than four Royal standards; the one that resembled the National
Flag, but had a small ‘Royal Crown’ in colour in the upper left-hand corner.
King Farouk raising Egyptian Flag over Kasr-el-Barracks after British withdrawal from the Nile delta.
With the
abolition of Monarchy, after the revolution of 1952, the ‘Red-White-Black’ of
three equal horizontal stripes was introduced in Egypt. The colours symbolized
the period of oppression (black) over come through bloody struggle (red) to be
replaced by a bright future(white). This flag , considered by many as the
second generation of ‘Pan-Arab colours’. The colours became the inspiration for the flags of
many other Arab Nations which chose the
republican political system. The
symbolism was explained by poet Safi al-Din-al-Hili as:
“White
are our deeds, black are our battles,
Green
are our fields, red are our knives”.
The National Flag of United
Arab Republic (1958-1961) and Egypt (1961-1973)
The central
white stripe was charged with two ‘Green Stars’ in 1958 with the formation of
the United Arab Republic (UAR) with Syria.
Second anniversary of the proclamation of the UAR, 1960
In 1984 Egypt
withdrew from the Federation of Arab Republic founded in 1971 by Egypt, Libya
and Syria. The Federation was virtually became inactive since Egypt broke off
diplomatic relations with Libya in 1973, on the other hand Syria broke off
diplomatic relations with Egypt after ‘1979 Peace Treaty’ with Israel signed by
President Anwar Sadat.
20th anniversary of revolution, 1972
Egypt also replaced the ‘Qureish Falcon’ named after the
tribe of Prophet Mohammed and introduced by Gamal Abdel Nasser by the ‘Eagle of
Saladin’ on Egypt’s national emblem. Saladin was the Sultan of Egypt and Syria
who in 1187 had defeated the Christians, near Tiberas and conquered Jerusalem,
sparking the third Crusade.
You have provided very valuable information. It is really very important, and people like to read such information.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much
Pincodezone
Flag of Egypt
ReplyDelete