What happened to the Old Egyptian Flag? 

The title the Egyptians rulers had before 1914 was Khedive not Caliph. The title was considered "lower" than Sultan and the Egyptian rulers "promoted" themselves by changing their title to Sultan after 1914.

To my mind the Mexican flag with the Eagle killing the serpent is the coolest birdy flag I can think of

In the social hierarchy there were clear distinctions of status and power between “ Turks ” ( atrak ) , the term usually applied by native Egyptian writers to both Ottomans and Mamluks , and the Arabic - speaking indigenous population whom those in power often lumped together as " peasants " ( fallahin ) regardless of occu- pation or residence . Whereas Egyptian writers sometimes casti- gated the " Turks " as bad Muslims due to the often unruly behavior of the Ottoman forces garrisoning Egypt , the “ Turks ” in turn regarded native Egyptians as a servile population unfit for politics or war . In the contemptuous words of one Ottoman governor , " I will not give [ military ] salaries to fallahin . Salaries are for the Turks . " 3 From the Egyptian side literary works from both the Mamluk and Ottoman eras indicate that literate Egyptians had not totally submerged their identity within Islam , but retained an awareness of Egypt's distinctiveness as a uniquely fertile region of the Muslim world , as a land of great historical antiquity and splendor , and more recently as a citadel of Islam against external assault . Egypt: A Short History James P. Jankowski · 2000 · p.60, 61

The cresant moon was originally a Turkic symbol and not an Islamic one. Islam doesn't really have symbols associated to it but gradually cultures have adopted them as part of the religious symbols.

British military occupation of Egypt dates back to 1882, not 1914. It was a British protectorate way before WW1 started, mate.

Hello Hilbert. Very interesting as I knew only a little about the flag history here. I was half expecting you to say that the previous version did not last FAR into the future, before the new one replaced it.

So several mistakes in this video. Never did an Egyptian ruler call themselves Caliph, except for the Fatimids. Muhammed Ali's dynasty called themselves Khedive, which means Viceroy as that alludes to their “loyalty” to the Ottoman Sultan, who himself never called himself Caliph despite technically being one. Another matter is that the Ayubids and Mamluks had adopted a style of banner from Ancient Egypt. You would find flags with the eye of Horus on them, or the key of life and other similar emblems. Finally, the modern flag. While the blood for red and such is common among other Arab nations, in Egypt it has a different meaning. The red is the desert, the black is the fertile lands of the land (Black soil) while the white is a new beginning. Saladin died in 1193, that's the 12th century, not the 13th. My source is that I"m Egyptian and that's what they taught me in school ¯\_(ツ)_/

Honestly as an Egyptian i view the old green flag as way cooler and more unique than the current one, with all due respect to the message and symbolism and iconic status the newer one has gained over time. Both could be adopted as official flags.

This was very hard to listen to because so many things were wrong. Just inside of a minute, hadiths were described as verses, Egypt was conquered by the Ummayyads and not the Rashidun, the Abbasids being from Iran (this is like saying the Nazis were Italians because they had a support base there). Tough to watch things that are so obviously wrong to anyone with any clue of the subject matter being presented. :(

QUICK, GERMANY DROPPED THEIR REALLY COOL TRICOLOR FLAG. FLIP IT UPSIDE DOWN AND SAY ITS OURS.

Quraish isn't a region but the tribe from which the Prophet came.

Though a little off topic, i think it would've been nice to mention Egypt's flag proposals following the coup, the cape to cairo flag by Rhodes aswell as the meaning of the shield in the current Egyptian flag

Would be really cool if Egypt had a sphinx on its flag.

The green flag looked way cooler

Albania has a two-headed eagle on their flag.

I was legit thinking about this flag change earlier today and now you have a video on it.

They should have a sandy, yellow or gold flag, oh well.

Yemen was briefly united with the U.A.R. and had a red-white-black flag with 1 green star, can't find an illustration of it online.

they changed it because new flag looks 100000% cooler

Off-topic, but I really love this flag which is kinda similar to the old flag, it's the old Wafd Party flag! I like it cuz it has a cross on it to acknowledge the Copts (i think), I was really surprised to know Christians make up 10% of Egypt

Egyptian here. The current Egyptian flag is inspired by Nasser’s Pan Arabism which I am intensively against and I think that the green flag looked way better. It should be readopted soon!

Mexico 🇲🇽 bird right there in the middle

interesting video, didn't know this history before

Hey Hilbert, could I get your source for that quote at 1:05? I am aware of a very similar, but still different, quote and would like to sate my curiousity. Keep up the great work!

There is a huge mistake in an otherwise good video: Britain took control of Egypt in 1882.

Excuse me, but I think your little neighbouring country, Germany, has a bird in his flag. At least in his official service flag version.

Regarding the Abbasids and that they came from the east Firstly, these are not verses but hadiths aka narrations from the prophet Secondly these hadiths were not written about them, they twisted them and applied them upon themselves to legitimize their revolt against the Umayyids You need to put more research

Do Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia & Brunei

Why is no one addressing the photo at 5:01 of the guy at the pyramids... with a goddamn kangaroo. Wtf? Where did the kangaroo come form and why? Lol. I’m so confused by this photo and also the fact that we just slid right on past it as if it was completely normal. Lol.

Post Ottoman flag vs ugly arab nationalist flag. Same case why North Africa has star-ceescent flags and the middle east has that ugly upside down imperial german flag

The stars and Eagles represent imperial rule.

Rife with mistakes, glib ones at that. The Umayyads flag was white, coopting the flag of the prophet, the Abbasids was black, signifying revenge. There’s no such thing as “religious verses” in Islam than the Quran, Abbasids did not originate in Iran (Persia actually, since Ian didn’t exist back then), their armies originated from there, Abbasids themselves were Arabs until Harun all-rashid at least ( Arab father, foreign concubine for the lineage, but nominally Arabic). The eagle is the Eagle of Saladin, it waa the banner of ayyubids (btw French sans de fleur or whatever it is called, which they copied from the Manila)

The three stars represent ( Egypt ' sudan , and kret)

Where did you get that "Hadeeth"??

0:41 Iraq*, not Iran . 1:43 - the Fatimids used green flags not white. The Umayyads used white.

Bro u messed up big time here What u presented earlier in the video is a narration from the prophet It’s not a verse or something How can you miss that? Overall good video

Quraish is not 'an important region' as said in the video but an Arab tribe that Muhammad is said to have belonged to

North Yemen was also part of the United Arab Republic.

a history youtuber in 2023 who doesn't know already of the Tutankhamun flag cartouche and its adoption as the republican flag; red and white for the pre-union pre-histporic egyptian kingdoms of north and south, and black for the fertile black soil (Kemt) Nor does he understand or acknowledge the difference and opposition between the egyptian socialist republican movement with tri-color egyptian flag designs and the monarchic arab revolution 4-color flags designs simply have absolutely no business mentioning egypt in a video, let alone make one about its flags

Mexico has an eagle killing a snake on its flag

7:07 Hilbert the colours stand for three Arab caliphates or dynasties (red: Hashemite, white: Umayyad, black: Abbasid).

red-white-black = pan-Arabic? hmmm, also, "Prussia>Germany"...

Correction:Abbassid family not come from Iran but start their revolution in iran

The title was Khedive not Caliph. In 1914 when Egypt became a British protectorate in order to assert that Egypt was no longer part of the Ottoman Empire ruled by the Ottoman Sultan the British changed the title of the ruler of Egypt from Khedive (something like a governor but with more power) to Sultan, making the ruler of Egypt on equal terms with the Ottoman ruler. In 1919 a revolution broke out in Egypt and as a consequence in 1922 Egypt gained its independence from Britain (but was still part of the British sphere of influence) the ruler of Egypt (then Sultan Fuad) changed his title from sultan to king to become on equal terms with the British ruler. A King. And his title was "The King of Egypt, sovereign of Nubia, Sudan, Kordofan and Darfur" and would ultimately become "King of Egypt and the Sudan" Egypt's flag is not really "pan Arabic colors" as at that time Egypt did not embrace an "Arab identity" it was during Nasser's rule (the one who changed the flag into the 2 green stars flag used by Syria today) that a propaganda to spread Pan-Arabism to counter imperialism was started in Egypt and Egyptians wouldn't embrace an "Arab" identity till the 50s. Saladin did not "aid Egypt". He ruled Egypt becoming the founder of the Ayubbid dynasty that would rule Egypt for much of the period during the crusades.

Hello

What about the Kurdish flag? That'd be neat.

Brothers 🇦🇱♥️🇪🇬

Given the short form of the videos it would be too much to expect mention of the Khedive, a disused old Persian rank that the British bought from Persia to give their puppet Emir Farouk. Then of course you mentioned Sudan, a can of worms considering that Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was in an internal dispute or two, not to mention a territorial dispute with France. You mention Mahdi, but not the one that besieged Khartoum. I was a history major before the real world slapped sense into me and I changed majors, so consider this not as a criticism of the video but a hook to catch interested surfers.

Looks like the old german flag, just the other way round.

As a country, it's not that old. It was part of the islamic kingdoms for centuries. As a civilization? You could say that islamization basically ended Egyptian identity, but it does really feel like they cling to it, so I'd give them a pass.

Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania all have birds. The Balkans are a big bird on flag region

@historywithhilbert it's okey to youse a secular premise to analyze this but you have to do a better job about it. 1-these aren't ''verse'' so you are factually wrong by stating this. these are Hadiths. 2-The better hypothesis isnt to say that they wrote this for themselves (witch would have been obvious from their rival and they wouldn't have any support. The best way to see the situation is to assume that they only tried to force what was already written to make people believe that these hadiths were about them. Before presenting the history of something that you haven't learn from an early age you need to understand the basics about it from the people that told theese stories themselves and not with a colonial gaze.

It became the german empire

Ancient Egypt was known as the 'red and black land'

Real Talk

0:45 in Iraq

Mamluk were Turkish rulers. And crescent has nothing with Islam. Crescent maybe linked with ancient Turkic symbols or banner of Constantinople… It is about Turks not Islam

But Kurds are aligned with Templars via the Gutians.

Egyptian Kangaroo!

Modern and Ancient Egypt have little more in common than the name. The language and culture are completely different. Thus modern Egypt can't be an old country, since modern Egypt has its origin in Mohammad Ali's state.

Do one about Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹

Hello