Eagle of Saladin (heraldry)

The Arab eagle, in Egypt also known as the Eagle of Saladin (Arabic: نسر صلاح الدين‎‎ Nasr Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn), also known as the Republican Eagle (النسر الجمهورى an-nasr al-jumhūrá), is a heraldic eagle used as an emblem in Arab nationalism and in the coat of arms and flags of the Arab world. It is currently used as part of coat of arms of Egypt, Iraq and Palestine.

The association with Saladin is due to the depiction of an eagle on the west wall of the Cairo Citadel built under Saladin, although the eagle itself is of more recent date. "The eagle in the Citadel of Cairo is of very uncertain date, probably considerably later than the period of Saladin". The eagle is headless and is assumed to have originally been a double-headed eagle. The Cairo Citatel is not its original location, it has been transferred there from an unknown location at an unknown time prior to 1670.

Note that the word نسر nisr, which may mean either "eagle" or "vulture", is used for Arab nationalism; the actual word for "eagle", عقاب ʿuqāb is reserved as the name of the Black Standard used in Jihadism.

While the Pan-Arab colors of the Flag of the Arab Revolt date to the early 20th century (the Arab Revolt of 1916), the eagle as a symbol of Republic of Egypt was introduced in the Egyptian revolution of 1952. The emblem was inherited by the coat of arms of the United Arab Republic of 1958, and from this time the "Arab eagle" was taken to represent wider Arab nationalism rather than Egypt in particular.

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