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Morocco

Al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiya; Kingdom of Morocco

by Željko Heimer, 08 Jun 2002

Description
Civil ensign
Navy ensign
Royal standard?
Mourning hoisting

See also:

Description

Red with Solomon's seal (green outlined fivepointed star). It is one of the red arabic flags, though Morocco is quite far away from Emirates.
Željko Heimer, 25 Nov 1995

Concerning the descritption of the flag of Morocco, here is an excerpt of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco (10 March 1974, revised 4 September 1992):

Chapter One
General provisions
Article 7: The emblem of the Kingdom shall be a red flag with a five-pointed green star in the centre. (...)

Pascal Vagnat, 16 May 1999

The green pentagram shown on the national flag of Morocco is often called Solomonʼs seal. Its origin might date back to the Babylonian Empire, c. 2000 BC. The pentagram might have represented goddess Ishtar, assimilated by the Muslims to Fatima, the Prophetʼs daughter. On the Moroccan flags, the pentagram represents the link between God and the nation. Remember that Islam is the official religion in Morocco and that the King, descendant of the Prophet, bears the title of Commander of the Believers.
Ivan Sache, 15 Jun 2003, based on [lux01]

Big star variant

by Jaume Ollé, 07 Jul 2004

The official Moroccan Royal Navy flag plates show a big star, about ¹/₂ of the hoist.
Armand du Payrat, 20 Jun 1997

Civil ensign

by Jaume Ollé, 27 Jun 1997

The national flag, with a yellow crown in the canton.
Jan Zrzavy, 16 Jan 1998

According to an official plate sent to me by the Moroccan Royal Navy, this is the civil ensign — but the crown is of a simpler design, like on the volume of the French Hydrographic Service [pie90].
Armand du Payrat, 01 Jul 1997

Last week, in Rotterdam harbour, I saw an obviously non-military ship from Tangiers (Morocco) showing the flag with one crown in canton at itʼs stern. But in the recent past I also saw a civil Moroccan ship showing the national flag — plain red with green star.
Gerard van der Vaart, 25 Apr 2000

Some navies have functions that are not usually considered naval. The ship in Rotterdam harbor may have belonged to the navy even if not a warship. Just a guess.
John Ayer, 26 Apr 2000

Navy ensign

by Jaume Ollé, 12 Sep 1998

The official plate sent to me by the Moroccan Royal Navy (Album sur les Pavillons et les marques du Royaume du Maroc, sent to me on 1997.01.08 by the Moroccan military Attaché in Paris) gives for the Navy flag four small yellow crowns, one in each corner. That is different from what I have seen in many flag books, but the same is shown on a photo in Cols Bleus review dated 1998.01.31.
Armand du Payrat, 20 Jun 1997 and 14 Sep 1998

Smith (both [smi75b] and [smi80]) gives the version with one crown in canton as naval ensign, and civil ensign is supposed to be the same as national flag. However, the shape of the crown given in Smith is quite different more similar to the crown that is on the top of the state arms. Possibly some changes happened after 1980?
Željko Heimer, 21 Jun 1997

Royal standard?

Spanish newspaper El País published an article (15th July 2000, Comunidad Valenciana supplement, p. 3) about an audience granted by King Muhammad VI of Marocco to the president of the Valencian Region (Spain). Behind the King appears a national flag with a border made of embroidered olive leaves (possibly golden, possibly green as the star). It may be simply an ornament, but it certainly is not simply a fringe and I wonder whether this might be any kind of royal standard.
Santiago Dotor, 19 Mar 2001

Mourning hoisting

At http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/p/ap/19990724/wl/france_morocco_hassan.html, a flag mourning ritual I have never seen before. My guess is to prevent the wind from unfurling the national flag, to show that the former national ruler is deceased. Itʼs probably unique to Morocco, or at least the Arab World: «A member of the Moroccan Consulate in Paris ties the Moroccan flag around a mast to mark official mourning of the death of King Hassan II Saturday, July 24, 1999.»
David Kendall, 26 Jul 1999