Last modified: 2024-05-11 by ian macdonald
Keywords: state ensign | naval ensign | war flag | crown (yellow) | pahlavi | sword (yellow) | sun (yellow) | lion (yellow) |
triband: horizontal (green white red) |
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The national flag and civil ensign is shown by Smith Flags Through the Ages and Around the World as a horizontal triband green-white-red with proportion 4:7.
According to Smith, the basic tricolor dates
from the Constitution of 14 August 1905, with artistic alterations in 1912,
1933, and ca. 1964. From the chronology, the change from 1:3 to 4:7 proportions
most probably occurred ca. 1964.
Ivan Sache, 16 October 1999
National flag with the national emblem in
the middle, proportion 4:7.
Source: Smith Flags Through the Ages and Around the World
There was never any crown above the lion and sun emblem--at least not on the state flag and ensign. Whitney Smith
shows the emblem in the centre of the white stripe with no crown.
Martin Grieve, 18 January 2003
The emblem shows the traditional Persian lion holding a sword with a rising
sun in the background and surmonted by an Imperial crown. The lion stands on a
scroll without any writing on it.
Source: Smith Flags Through the Ages and Around the World
Ivan Sache, 20 August 2002
I would like to point out
that the emblem on the old Iranian national flag is a far older symbol than the Qajar dynasty.
The Epic of the Kings, written in the 1100s about
the centruies before the conquest of Islam, refers to
the Iranian army or king as marching under a banner
with "the lion and the sunrise." The sword was added
in the 1800s to make it more Islamic. The lion was
the symbol of pre-Islamic Iran (Persia) along with the
cypress tree, though I've never seen the two used
together.
Robert Wilson, 26 December 2002
Like the state ensign, but the emblem is smaller and flanked by two golden
wreaths that join beneath the emblem.
Source: Smith Flags Through the Ages and Around the World
Jaume Ollé, 25 August 2002
The war flag/naval ensigns during this period had the lion and sun with the imperial
crown.
Martin Grieve, 18 January 2003
Yesterday I found several Jane's Fighting Ships from the 1970s. In the Iran
section there was a photo that clearly showed an Iranian warship flying the
usual naval ensign, and a *white* version of the square jack, which
confirmed the authenticity of the white square jack in Flags of All Nations,
(HMSO 1955).
Miles Li, 19 July 2003
image located by Martin Karner, 4 April 2024
On a video about a pro-Israel counter demonstration in London on 30 March
2024 an Iranian opposition flag can be seen a few times (pictures taken at 4:57
and 1:25:22). The flag shows on the green-white-red tricolor the golden lion of
the national emblem surrounded by a wreath of the same, beside a portrait photo
of Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran and leader of the oppositional National
Council of Iran, residing in Virginia, USA. Below the photo is the writing "KING
OF IRAN" in white on red. The portrait photo is on the hoist side.
The video
is made by the British vlogger Mahyar Tousi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSWMSuaRIBQ
Martin Karner, 4 April 2024
This flag is a mix between the Iranian Empire (Pahlavi dynasty, 1925-1964)
War Flag and the Crown
Prince of Iran.
Esteban Rivera, 6 April
2024