That calligraphy in the green and red fields actually reads “Allahu akbar” (albeit with the second word in Arabic turned on its side):Īnd of course what’s on the ISIS flag? The same shahadah as on the Seljuk or Afghan (or Saudi) flags–but seemingly written by someone just starting madrasah:Īnd in a more overtly eschatological vein, here’s the flag of the Mahdist State of the Sudan, 1881-1898 (from “ Mahdist State,” Wikipedia):Īn excellent close analysis of this and various other flags of the state established by the Sudanese Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, can be found here. Here’s the flag of the modern Islamic Republic of Iran (taken from “ Flag of Iran,” Wikipedia): It reads “there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger ” and below that “Allahu akbar,” “God is great.” Here’s the flag of the modern “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” (from “ Flag of Afghanistan,” Wikipedia): “A troop of spectators on horseback and with inscribed banners…from al-Hariri of Basra….” (from “ Islamic Flags,” Wikipedia). Their successors, the Seljuks, added the shahadah (“there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger”)–as shown in this illustration, center-right: The Abbasids’ original flag was, it seems, a purely black one.

9th century AD, under the Tahirid Dynasty (from “ Abdallah ibn Tahir al-Khurasani,” Wikipedia).

These banners exploited eschatological hadiths and empowered the Abbasid movement to conquer the Umayyads and set up a caliphate that came to be known as the “Golden Age” of Islam. He and I discussed the US’ forever war in Afghanistan.Īnalyzing Iran and Afghanistan started me thinking about Khurasan (or Khorasan)–the ancient geographical region straddling modern Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan whence came the Abbasids, in 750 AD, bearing their black flags. The other was with my Colorado friend at KNUS AM 710, Denver, Peter Boyles. One was a 70″-long discussion with my good friend Pete Turner on his “Break It Down Show” about two topics: patriotism-nationalism and then the Middle East, focusing on Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and whether the ayatollahs have any desire to use them to “hotwire the apocalypse.” (The answer is “no,” as anyone who follows me will already know–which makes the attempt to paint Iran’s leadership as apocalyptically suicidal a false flag one). This past week I did two radio interviews.

Red black flag