Flag of Jordan

What the flag of Jordan looks like

The flag of Jordan has three horizontal stripes of equal height: black at the top, white in the middle and green at the bottom. A red triangle rests on the hoist side, with its base on the pole and its point reaching about halfway across the flag, to the center. Inside the triangle is a small white seven-pointed star, set on the middle line of the flag. The proportions are 1:2, so the flag is twice as wide as it is tall.

The flag of Jordan is one of a family of Pan-Arab flags that use the same four colors. Its most distinctive feature is the seven-pointed star, which makes it different from the flag of Palestine and from that of other flags with a red triangle. A small version is shown on the Jordan flag emoji page.

Jordan flag meaning and symbolism

The four colors of Jordan's flag are the colors of Arab dynasties and caliphates in history. The usual explanation is that black stands for the Abbasid caliphate, white for the Umayyad caliphate and green for the Fatimid caliphate (some readings link green to the Rashidun caliphs). The red triangle stands for the Hashemite dynasty, to which the Jordanian royal family belongs, and for the Arab Revolt.

The seven-pointed star has a few explanations. In the official reading it refers to the seven verses of the opening chapter of the Quran, Al-Fatiha. It is also said to stand for the seven hills on which Amman was first built, and for the unity of the Arab peoples. The meanings of the colors are not set in law and are traditional, but they are widely taught in Jordan.

History of the Jordan flag

The design goes back to the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which began in 1916 under Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca, the head of the Hashemite family. The flag of the revolt had black, green and white stripes, with a red triangle on the hoist side. Its design is often credited to Sir Mark Sykes, a British diplomat, and it was used by the Hashemite forces of the Kingdom of Hejaz.

When the Emirate of Transjordan was founded in 1921 under Emir Abdullah I, a son of Sharif Hussein, it used a version of this flag. On 16 April 1928 the Emirate adopted its flag with the white star added to the red triangle, to distinguish it from the other flags based on the revolt. The country became fully independent in 1946 as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and kept the same flag, which is still in use. Its proportions of 1:2 and the placement of the star were later fixed by law.

The flag is flown on public buildings every day and is a central element of national holidays such as Independence Day on 25 May.

Jordan flag vs Palestine flag

Jordan's flag is often confused with the flag of Palestine. Both come from the Arab Revolt flag and share black, white and green stripes and a red triangle. The difference is the star: Jordan has a white seven-pointed star inside the triangle, and Palestine's flag has none. The Palestinian flag was adopted in 1964 and, in its modern form, it is a plain triangle with no star, and its proportions are 1:2.

The flag is also close to those of Sudan and Kuwait, which use the same Pan-Arab colors in a different layout, and of the United Arab Emirates, which has a red vertical bar at the hoist with green, white and black stripes. If you remove the star from Jordan's flag, you get something that looks identical to the Palestinian flag.