Afghan Regular army flags

[RichBliss]

I’m finally finishing off a group of Foundry regular Afghan infantry and I just realized that one of the figures is a standard bearer.  Does anyone know what a Afghan Battalion would carry? National color, regimental, religious banner?

[has.been]

No, but if anyone does I am interested.

[Will Bailie]

I've done some looking without success.  Best I've come up with (and it isn't much!) is from the Wikipedia page, which indicates a plain, black national flag from 1880-1901, and no official flag before that.  Haven't found anything on regimental or other flags.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Afghanistan

I'm not one to be too fussed about the particular flags the troops carry.  My Pathan tribesmen carry some banners with 'William's little askari' written in Pashto, and the Afghan regulars have the plain black flag.

[jazbo]

The afghan regular army had triangular standards. With various designs:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=second+afghan+war+flags&oq=second+afghan+war+flags&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.5861j0j7&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=TJP0bzTU3BBROM:


 I'm sure there is a flag sheet online somewhere, and I'm guessing the maiwand blog guy who frequents this forum will be able to help you.

[RichBliss]

Irregular tribes were well known to carry the triangular flags (Ikm not sure I’d call them ‘standards’). My question is relation to the regular army.  Barring additional information, I’ll probably go with plain black.

[jazbo]

Did you look at the link .

Links to a clear painting of regular afghan cavalry with a triangular standard.

It was the same for the infantry.

I clearly answered your question, even down to telling you there is a free flag sheet somewhere online should you be inclined to use Google.

Youre welcome.

[ARKOUDAKI]

Generally speaking Afghan standards (across the board, reg and irregs) were triangular (right triangle type), large, colorful, and with tassles. They were generally solid color flags with symbols/motifis sewed into them (different on each side). In fact, I was just at a museum recently doing some research in this area and came across an old Afghan standard that the museum thought was something else. Sorry I can't share photos due to museum copyright issues. That said, big and large and colorful are good choices for Afghan standards.

Also, I wouldn't use a solid black flag, as that often denotes flags used by fanatics warrior groups like the Ghunzees (Afghans) and Alkalis (Sikhs).

Here are some period photos:

https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/anglo-afghan-war.html

The one below is from the time of the 3rd Afghan war, but things didn't change much in the flags

And Jazbo did in fact help you....best if you ask a question to read the responses.

[RichBliss]

I did read the responses.  The link was for a single oil painting of a regular cavalry regiment.  Showing a triangular standard.  I agree that triangular flags are usual for Afghan troops. However, all of the ones I have seen with provenance are noted as belonging to irregular troops.  Hence the question.   And telling me they think there is a “flag sheet somewhere” isn’t really helpful either.  I was really asking for definitive information on Regular Infantry.  I apologize for not making that clearer.

[Rhingyll]

I don't think there is any definitive source (assuming that Regulars even carried flags into battle) for Afghan Regular Army Flags. Best to just make up something you think will look good. I went with rectangular flags for my regular Afghan units, Just used "Paint" and the color bucket to change to different colors. I have attached some examples for you. - Bob

[Mad Guru]

Hi guys & Hello Rhingyll my friend!

I'm guessing this is the regular cavalry image referred to above:



In my humble opinion, all of you are correct.

The above illustration clearly shows a triangular flag mounted on the back of an Afghan regular army cavalry trooper.

However, it is the only period image or description I have ever seen of an Afghan regular carrying a triangular flag.

As described by AROUDAKI, that awesome photo he posted shows tribal fighters (or possibly militia) around the time of the Third Afghan War (1919), which personally I do not think qualify as "regular army" troops.  No one in the photo wears anything close to an Afghan Army uniform or piece of government-issue headgear.

This does not mean no Afghan regular army units back in 1878-1880 carried triangular flags, other than those small ones attached to the backs of cavalrymen, but in my humble opinion neither does it show that they did.

I have posted on this topic in the past, both here and over on TMP, but the web-page with the most useful LINK I used to put up -- which showed Afghan flags and banners dating from ancient through modern times -- has sadly disappeared from the web.  I wish I had saved the individual images back then, but I didn't.  Amongst them were rectangular national flags from the later 18th Century and throughout the 19th Century.  These included variations on the flag which Rhingyll posted above, one of which -- using wreaths and crossed gun barrels -- is shown here:



The reality is that both of these designs date from the regime of Adbur Rahman Khan, which began in 1880, when he assumed power just before the British left at the end of the Second Afghan War.

Still, they might bear some relation to the flags which preceded them.

The official "National" Afghan flag under Abdur Rahman's was SOLID BLACK.

I have never seen an "official" depiction of the Afghan national flag between the fall of the Durrani Empire in 1823, and the start of Abdur Rahman's reign in 1880.

The Durrani flag is usually depicted as a horizontal tricolor, with GREEN at the top and bottom, and WHITE in the middle.  One other flag sometimes shown for the Durrani era is this black triangular one:

[Mad Guru]

Having strange probem posting a couple of more images in my reply above, so wanted to see if I could get them to post here...

[ARKOUDAKI]

Great stuff Mad Guru! Some useful graphics indeed.

On the Afghan cavalry flag shown above, it is important to note that this is much smaller than those used by the irregular infantry and different in shape (Isosceles triangle vs right triangle).

As for other graphics, I do vividly recall when the National Army Museum (NAM) ran a special exhibit on the various Afghan Wars that they had some period lithos and such depicting Afghan standards....but I can't locate the images. So there is info out there.

I also found in my archives some photos taken from the Somerset Light Infantry Museum that show Afghan standards from the 1st Afghan War. I know RichBliss was after something more later but it does give you some ideas of the style of Afghan standards.

[RichBliss]

Thank you MadGuru.  This is quite useful.

[Will Bailie]

thanks to all who posted, I've learnt quite a lot.  Nice to see some good alternatives to the boring black flags I'm currently using; I will be updating the flags for a few of my Afghan regulars based on what's been presented here.