Flag of United Arab Emirates

What it means

• Red band: officially energy and the sacrifices made for the nation; the designer linked it to the old Ottoman flag and to blood
• Green: growth and prosperity; the designer also said fertile green gardens
• White: peace and purity
• Black: dignity; the designer has also said it stands for oil and for hard times in history
• All four colours: they are the pan-Arab colours, shared by many Arab countries and linked to the Arab Revolt of 1916

Where it came from

The flag was chosen in a nationwide design contest held just before the seven emirates united in 1971. The winner was Abdullah Mohammed Al Maainah, a 19-year-old from Abu Dhabi, whose design was picked from more than a thousand entries.

He did not know he had won until he saw his flag being raised for the first time at Mushrif Palace on 2 December 1971, the day the country was born. Years later he became an ambassador for the UAE.

History

Before the union, the area was called the Trucial States. Its rulers' flags were mostly plain red, a colour used by local tribes for centuries. After an 1820 treaty with Britain, most of them had to add white to their red flags, which is why several emirates still have red-and-white flags today.

From 1968 to 1971 the Trucial States Council used its own flag. When the federation formed, all seven emirates took up the new national flag, although each emirate also kept its own local flag.

Easy to mix up with

• Kuwait: Kuwait uses the same four colours, but its black part is a trapezoid at the side, not a straight red band
• Jordan: Jordan has black, white and green stripes with a red triangle holding a white star
• Palestinian Territories: Palestine has the same stripes in the order black, white, green, with a red triangle instead of a band