flag of Libya

Under Italian colonial rule from 1911 until 1942, Libya had no flag of its own. Subsequently, under British and French administration, only the Union Jack and the French Tricolor were flown. Nevertheless, the Sanūsiyyah (Sennusiya), a powerful Islamic sect, had long displayed flags of black with inscriptions from the Qurʾān. In 1947 the Sanūsī leader became the king of Cyrenaica, which, with Tripolitania and Fezzan, became the United Kingdom of Libya.

Cyrenaica’s black flag with a white star and crescent was not acceptable as a national flag for all of Libya; consequently, green and red horizontal stripes were added to represent Tripolitania and Fezzan, respectively, when the Libyan flag was established in 1949. No change was introduced at independence on December 24, 1951, but in 1969 the monarchy was overthrown by Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi. He adopted a flag of red-white-black horizontal stripes in imitation of the Arab Liberation Flag that had been flown unofficially in neighbouring Egypt (the Arab Liberation Flag also influenced the design of the current national flag of Egypt).

Qaddafi broke diplomatic relations with Egypt when its president, Anwar el-Sādāt, went to Israel to broker a peace agreement. The national flag of Libya was changed at that time to reflect Libyan revulsion at Sādāt’s break with the anti-Israel front of Arab states. In its place Qaddafi established a plain green flag in November 1977, symbolic of the “Green Revolution” that he promised would bring a new life for the people. Under the Roman Empire, Libya had been an area of rich farmland, but increasing desertification had impoverished the land. Qaddafi sought to find adequate water supplies and other resources that would make Libya green again. Green was also considered symbolic of Islam. Following the overthrow of Qaddafi in 2011, the 1949 flag was reinstated on August 3 as Libya’s national flag.