Flags of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire used a variety of flags, especially as naval ensigns, during its history. The star and crescent came into use in the second half of the 18th century. A buyruldu (decree) from 1793 required that the ships of the Ottoman Navy were to use a red flag with the star and crescent in white. In 1844, a version of this flag, with a five-pointed star, was officially adopted as the Ottoman national flag. The decision to adopt a national flag was part of the tanzimat (reforms) which aimed to modernize the Ottoman state in line with the laws and norms of contemporary European states and institutions.

The familiar star and crescent design later became a common element in the national flags of Ottoman successor states in the 20th century. The current flag of Turkey is very similar to the late Ottoman flag, however, the star and crescent symbol is slimmer, and the crescent itself is longer and more tapering. Specifically, there are legal standardizations (regarding its measures, geometric proportions, and exact tone of red) that were introduced with the Turkish Flag Law on May 29, 1936

The pre-modern Ottoman armies used the horse-tail standard or tugh rather than flags. Such standards remained in use alongside flags until the 19th century. A depiction of a tugh is found in the Relation d'un voyage du Levant by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1718). War flags came into use by the 16th century. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Ottoman war flags often depicted the bifurcated Zulfiqar sword, often misinterpreted in Western literature as showing a pair of scissors. A Zulfiqar flag claimed to have been used by Selim I (d. 1520) is on exhibit in the Topkapı Museum. Two Zulfiqar flags are also depicted in a plate dedicated to Turkish flags in vol. 7 of Bernard Picart's Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (1737), attributed to the Janissaries and the Ottoman cavalry.

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