The History of Morocco's Flags: From White Banners to the Red Flag with a Green Star

How more than a dozen centuries of dynasties — Idrisid, Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid, Saadi, and Alaouite — shaped the flag Morocco flies today

History & Culture Guide — Morocco

Morocco's current flag — a red field with a green five-pointed star — looks simple at first glance, but it's the product of more than 1,200 years of dynastic history. Nearly every ruling dynasty that governed Morocco left its mark on the country's banners, and tracing those changes offers a genuine mini-history of the kingdom itself.

Before flags: Berber tribal standards

Long before dynastic flags existed, the Berber (Amazigh) tribes who first inhabited Morocco used rudimentary standards — totemic symbols or animal skins rather than formal cloth flags. Formalized flags only began appearing after the Arab conquest reached Morocco in the early 8th century, bringing Islam and, eventually, standardized dynastic symbols.

Idrisid dynasty (788–974): plain white

The Idrisid dynasty, founded by Idris I — a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad — was the first Islamic state in Morocco and is regarded as the country's founding state. Its flag was a simple, unadorned white silk banner, reflecting the purity associated with white in early Arab-Islamic tradition.

Almoravid dynasty (1040–1147): white with Quranic script

The Almoravids kept the white background but added Arabic calligraphy at the center — commonly the shahada, "There is no god but God, and Mohammad is His Prophet." The Almoravids are also credited with institutionalizing flag-bearing in a formal military sense, reportedly issuing one banner per unit of 100 soldiers.

Almohad Caliphate (1147–1269): the first red flag, with a checkerboard

The Almohads were the first Moroccan dynasty to adopt a red background — a color that has remained central to Moroccan flags ever since. At the center sat a distinctive black-and-white checkered square, resembling a chessboard, sometimes described as a symbol of the balance between good and evil or simply a striking dynastic emblem.

Marinid, Wattasid, and Saadi dynasties (1244–1659): red with a gold star

The Marinid dynasty, which claimed to be the Almohads' heirs, kept the red field but replaced the checkerboard with a gold-bordered rectangle featuring an eight-pointed star formed from two interlaced squares — a design closely related to the symbol still known today as the Rub el Hizb in Islamic geometric art. This emblem proved remarkably durable: both the Wattasid dynasty (1470–1554) and the Saadi dynasty (1549–1659) that followed the Marinids continued using essentially the same flag design, extending its use across more than four centuries in various forms.

Some historical sources give a slightly different account for the Saadi period specifically, suggesting the dynasty may have reverted to a plain white flag similar to the Almoravids at certain points — a reminder that record-keeping on medieval Moroccan flags is genuinely incomplete, and historians don't fully agree on every detail.

Alaouite dynasty (1666–present): plain red, then red with a star

The Alaouite dynasty, which has ruled Morocco since 1666 and continues to do so today, initially adopted a plain, unadorned red flag — a striking return to simplicity after the more elaborate Marinid-Saadi emblem. According to vexillological research group FOTW, the Alaouites were the first to introduce this style of plain red flag, which was raised every morning and lowered every evening over the fortresses of Rabat and Salé for roughly 250 years, with no decoration at all.

1912–1915: the French Protectorate and the addition of the star

Morocco's modern flag design emerged directly out of the colonial period. After the Treaty of Fez established the French Protectorate in March 1912, Sultan Moulay Yusuf issued a royal decree (dahir) on 17 November 1915 adding a green five-pointed star — explicitly called the "Seal of Solomon" — to the center of the traditional plain red Alaouite flag.

The change was practical as well as symbolic: with the plain red flag alone, Moroccan ships were easily confused with vessels flying other red-flagged nations' colors, including the Ottoman Empire. The green star gave Moroccan shipping and territory a distinct, recognizable identity even under French and Spanish colonial administration. Some sources note the star was originally conceived with six points (echoing the traditional Seal of Solomon symbol), before being changed to five points — aligning it with the five pillars of Islam — without full documentation of exactly why the change was made.

Independence and today's flag

When Sultan Mohammed V returned from exile in 1955 and declared the end of French and Spanish authority, Morocco's red-and-green flag was restored as the country's full national symbol. It was formally reaffirmed as Morocco's official flag in 1956, and remains unchanged today: a 2:3 ratio red field with a green pentagram at the center, its points inscribed within an invisible circle sized to one-sixth of the flag's length.

What the colors and star mean today

• Red: tied to the Alaouite dynasty's claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad (reflected in the traditionally red turban worn by ashraf, descendants of the Prophet), and more broadly associated with strength, courage, hardiness, and valor.
• Green: associated with Islam generally, and in the Quran with paradise; on the flag it represents hope, peace, wisdom, and joy.
• The five-pointed green star: officially termed the Seal of Solomon, representing the five pillars of Islam — the declaration of faith (shahada), prayer (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting (sawm), and pilgrimage (hajj).

A quick timeline

The bottom line

Morocco's flag history reveals a pattern that runs through the whole country's story: successive dynasties keeping certain elements (red endured across nearly a millennium once the Almohads introduced it) while layering their own symbols on top. The current flag, often assumed to be an ancient, unbroken tradition, is actually a relatively recent 1915 design — born, ironically, out of colonial-era practical necessity — that Morocco fully reclaimed and made its own at independence in 1956.