Flag of Saudi Arabia

How to read it

Article 3 of the Basic Law of Governance of 1992 describes the flag: green, its height two thirds of its length, with the shahada in the centre and a drawn sword beneath it. The Law of the Flag, issued by Royal Decree M/3 of 15 March 1973, sets the details, and the Ministry of Culture’s flag guideline of 2023 restates them: the green runs from the pole to the end of the flag; the sword lies beneath the shahada and parallel to it, its hilt on the right, three quarters as long as the inscription and at an equal distance from both sides; the shahada is written in thuluth script; and both are white and clearly visible from both sides of the flag. The guideline gives the green as Pantone 3425 C (hex #005430) and calls it emerald green.

Also searched as: flag of saudi arabia, saudi arabia flag, saudi arabia flag meaning, saudi flag, saudi flag meaning.

Not flown at half-mast

The Ministry of Culture’s guideline says the national flag and the King’s flag are never flown at half-mast, and Saudipedia notes that the flag law forbids lowering any Saudi flag that carries the shahada or a verse of the Qur’an. The flag may not touch the ground or water, may not be used as a trademark or in advertising, and is not flown faded or in poor condition; a flag too old to use is burned by the body that used it. Folded, it shows the shahada on top and the sword on the other side.

Flag Day on 11 March

Saudi Arabia has marked Flag Day every year on 11 March since a royal order of King Salman on 1 March 2023. The date is 11 March 1937 (27 Dhu al-Hijjah 1355), when King Abdulaziz approved a Shura Council resolution setting the flag’s size at 150 by 100 cm (59 by 39 in), the Ministry of Culture’s guideline says. The National writes that King Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud), who took Riyadh in 1902, first had his army carry a banner with only the shahada, in his wars with other tribes and rival families, and later added the sword. The guideline describes an earlier square flag, green with a white stripe at the pole and two crossed swords above the shahada, then a flag with one sword above it. The Norwegian encyclopedia Store norske leksikon dates the design in its present form to 15 March 1973, the date of the flag law.

The King’s flag

The King has his own flag: the national flag with the state emblem, two crossed swords under a palm tree, embroidered in gold silk thread in the lower corner by the pole. Article 4 of the Basic Law describes the same emblem as two crossed swords with a date palm in the space above them.