The 1921 Flag of The Kingdom of Iraq. The colours for the flag were inspired by the poetry of Safi il-Deen Al-Hilli (above). The two seven point stars denote the then 14 provences of the Kingdom.
The 1958 Flag of The new Republic of Iraq. The overthrow of the Monarchy on the 14th July 1958 brought about a change in Flags. Although the colours in the new flag are mostly the same as those in the old Kingdom Flag, they have other historical inspirations. The green colour represents the Prophet Mohammed's green flag, while the black is a reminder of the Abbasid's black flags. The white segament is in rememberence of the Ummayid's white flags. The red ring is a refrence to the blood spilled in the Revolution of 1958. The new addition of the yellow colour is a sign denotaing the Kurdish population of Iraq (Yellow was a colour used by Salladin, the famous Kurdish born leader)
The 1963 Flag. Another change of power brought another change of flags. The new flag uses the same colours as those of the Kingdom Flag and are inspired by the same poetry. However the symbolisim changed and the three green stars are to show intended unification between Iraq, Egypt ad Syria. After the Bathist takeover of 1968 and the abandonmentg of the unificaton plans, the symbolisim of the three stars changed yet again. The new traslation was that the three stars point to the Bathist motto of "Wihda, Hurriyah, Ishtirrakiyah" (Unity, Freedom, Socialisim).
The 1991 Flag. The words Allahu Akbar (God is Great) were added by Saddam Hussien prior to the start of the Gulf War. The intent was to improve his non existant Islamic image. The attempt was not a success.
