Family research · Phase 16 of the world atlas

Flags of Afghanistan

Afghanistan sits at one of the great crossroads of Asia — a corridor fought over and ruled through by Persian, Greek, and Islamic empires for two thousand years before anything resembling a unified Afghan state existed. That state is usually dated to a single afternoon in 1747, when Ahmad Shah Durrani was elected ruler at a loya jirga (grand council) in Kandahar and founded the Durrani Empire. From there the record runs through the nineteenth-century "Great Game" between British India and Russia, three Anglo-Afghan wars, a long twentieth-century monarchy, a 1973 republican coup, a 1978 communist revolution, a decade of Soviet military intervention, factional civil war, two periods of Taliban rule separated by two decades of internationally backed republic — and, unusually for the region, a country that was never formally colonized.

Flags here track political authority, not culture or ethnicity: nine entries span roughly two and a half millennia, with the first three deliberately compressed because no single Afghan flag can honestly be attributed to most of the pre-1747 era.

Scope of this page: the territory of present-day Afghanistan, c. 550 BCE–present. Because Afghanistan was ruled successively by outside empires for most of its history before 1747, with no continuous local polity to track, the ancient and medieval span is compressed into broad entries rather than given false year-by-year precision. Deeper coverage of the Achaemenid Persian, Hellenistic/Greco-Bactrian, and later regional empires that passed through this territory lives on their own pages in this atlas — see Persian Empire, Mongol Empire, and Ottoman Empire (the latter two never ruled Afghan territory directly but are referenced for regional context). This page is scoped to flags and polities specific to the Afghan lands themselves. Part of a larger atlas — see the linked pages at the bottom.

One border, no internal split

Afghanistan's own real border, traced whole — a landlocked crossroads state with no genuinely separate internal region to carve out honestly. Press play, or drag the slider, to watch who held it, era to era.

Afghanistan has never had a well-documented internal partition of the kind this atlas tracks elsewhere. Regional strongmen and provincial warlords have repeatedly contested control from the center, but no two rival governments each held a fixed, mapped half of the country the way Hungary or Poland once did — so this page shows one border and one ruling government at a time.

c. 550 BCE

Ancient and medieval crossroads: successive outside empires

Real traced border (modern frontier), no internal partition — see the rule box above for why.

plain white field, black shahada text — current Taliban state flag

15 August 2021 – present

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (second Taliban rule)

Islamic emirateHibatullah AkhundzadaSunni Islam (state religion, strict Sharia)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: mass flight after 2021 Taliban takeoverImmigration: forced returns from Pakistan & Iran (2023–)

Who & why: as US and NATO forces complete their withdrawal under the February 2020 Doha Agreement, the Taliban take Kabul on 15 August 2021 while the internationally backed government collapses and President Ashraf Ghani leaves the country. The Taliban re-declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, restoring the same movement and name that governed from 1996 to 2001.

What it represents: the same plain white flag with the black shahada (Islamic declaration of faith) used during the Taliban's first period of rule, readopted unchanged as the movement's state flag; the tricolor of the 2001–2021 republic is dropped from official use.

Paint guide

ProportionsRoughly 2:3, no strictly fixed civil ratio in wide use.

LayoutPlain white field, black Arabic shahada text (often stacked in two lines) centered or slightly upper-field.

White#FFFFFF

Black text#000000

black-red-green tricolor with central emblem and shahada, adopted 2004

2001 – 15 August 2021

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (US/NATO-backed)

Occupied/client stateHamid KarzaiIslam (constitutional state religion)

Migration & conquest:Occupied by: US & NATO forces (2001–2021)Immigration: refugee repatriation from Pakistan & Iran

Who & why: following the September 2001 attacks, a US-led coalition invades in October 2001 to remove the Taliban from power for sheltering al-Qaeda. An interim administration under Hamid Karzai is installed via the December 2001 Bonn Agreement; a new constitution is ratified in January 2004 establishing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, with Karzai (to 2014) and then Ashraf Ghani (to 2021) as president, backed throughout by an international military and civilian presence.

What it represents: a black-red-green vertical tricolor bearing the national emblem (a mosque flanked by wheat sheaves) and the shahada in white Arabic script across the top of the black band, formally fixed by the 2004 constitution; the design echoes the pre-1978 monarchy-era tricolor tradition.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3.

LayoutThree equal vertical bands, black-red-green (hoist to fly), white shahada across the black band, national emblem centered.

Black#000000

Red#C8102E

Green#007A3D

plain white field, black shahada text — first Taliban rule

27 September 1996 – 2001

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (first Taliban rule)

Islamic emirateMullah Mohammed OmarSunni Islam (state religion, strict Sharia)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: continued refugee flight to Pakistan & Iran

Who & why: the Taliban, having emerged from the chaos of the post-Soviet civil war, capture Kabul on 27 September 1996 and declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under Mullah Mohammed Omar. The Taliban government controls most of the country but is recognized by only three states (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE); the Northern Alliance continues to hold territory and fight on. The emirate ends with the US-led invasion in late 2001.

What it represents: a plain white flag with the black shahada in Arabic script, distinct from the tricolor traditions of prior governments and signaling the movement's religious rather than nationalist framing of the state.

Paint guide

ProportionsRoughly 2:3, not strictly fixed.

LayoutPlain white field, black Arabic shahada text.

White#FFFFFF

Black text#000000

green-white-black horizontal tricolor with central emblem

28 April 1992 – 27 September 1996

Islamic State of Afghanistan (mujahideen civil war era)

Civil war / contested authorityBurhanuddin RabbaniIslam (state religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: continued civil-war refugee flight

Who & why: the communist government under President Najibullah, deprived of Soviet support after the 1989 withdrawal, falls on 28 April 1992 as mujahideen factions enter Kabul. A coalition government declares the Islamic State of Afghanistan, but rival mujahideen factions (led by figures including Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and Ahmad Shah Massoud) fight one another for control of Kabul and the country through the mid-1990s, a period of severe factional civil war that ends only with the Taliban's 1996 capture of the capital.

What it represents: a green-white-black horizontal tricolor bearing the shahada and a state emblem, adopted by the interim Islamic State government; this design (with variations) is the direct ancestor of the flag later formalized under the 2004 constitution.

Paint guide

ProportionsRoughly 2:3, varied by faction printing.

LayoutThree horizontal bands, green-white-black (top to bottom), central emblem and shahada text on the white band.

Green#007A3D

White#FFFFFF

Black#000000

plain red field with gold state emblem in the canton

27 April 1978 – 28 April 1992

Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (PDPA / Soviet-backed)

Communist / Soviet-alignedNur Muhammad TarakiSecular (Marxist-Leninist, no state religion)

Migration & conquest:Occupied by: Soviet Union (1979–1989)Emigration: mass exodus to Pakistan & Iran

Who & why: the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seizes power in the 27 April 1978 Saur Revolution, killing President Daoud Khan and ending the five-year republic. Internal PDPA factional violence and rural resistance prompt the Soviet Union to intervene militarily in December 1979, installing Babrak Karmal and beginning the Soviet-Afghan War, fought against US- and Pakistan-backed mujahideen through the 1980s. Soviet forces withdraw in February 1989; the communist government, now under Mohammad Najibullah, survives without direct Soviet troops until it falls in April 1992 as post-Soviet Russian support ends.

What it represents: a plain red flag (from 1980) carrying a gold state emblem in the upper hoist, replacing an earlier, briefer 1978 tricolor; the all-red field aligned Afghanistan visually with other Soviet-bloc states during this period.

Paint guide

Proportions1:2 (1980 pattern).

LayoutPlain red field, gold state emblem (wheat sheaves, star, and inscriptions) in the upper hoist.

Red#C8102E

Gold emblem#FFD100

black-red-green tricolor with an eagle-form state emblem, republic era

17 July 1973 – 27 April 1978

Republic of Afghanistan (Daoud Khan)

RepublicMohammed Daoud KhanIslam (state religion)

Who & why: Mohammed Daoud Khan, the king's cousin and former prime minister, overthrows King Zahir Shah in a bloodless palace coup on 17 July 1973 while the king is abroad, ending the roughly two-century Durrani/Barakzai monarchy and declaring the Republic of Afghanistan with himself as president. Daoud's increasingly authoritarian rule and break with his former leftist allies contribute to his overthrow and death in the 1978 Saur Revolution.

What it represents: the black-red-green vertical tricolor is retained from the late monarchy but recentered on a new republican eagle-form emblem, marking continuity of the national colors across the change in government.

Paint guide

ProportionsRoughly 2:3.

LayoutThree equal vertical bands, black-red-green (hoist to fly), republican eagle emblem centered.

Black#000000

Red#C8102E

Green#007A3D

black-red-green tricolor with mosque-and-wheat royal emblem, monarchy era

1919 – 17 July 1973

Kingdom of Afghanistan (Barakzai dynasty, 20th-century monarchy)

Kingdom, independentAmanullah KhanSunni Islam (Hanafi, state religion)

Ruling house:Barakzai dynasty

Who & why: King Amanullah Khan takes the throne in February 1919 and immediately fights the Third Anglo-Afghan War (May–August 1919); the resulting August 1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi secures Afghanistan full control of its own foreign affairs, formally completing its independence from British influence over external relations. Amanullah pursues sweeping modernizing reforms through the 1920s before abdicating amid rebellion in 1929. After a brief interregnum, the Barakzai line continues under Nadir Shah (1929–1933) and then his son Zahir Shah, whose long, largely stable reign from 1933 to 1973 ends when Daoud Khan's coup abolishes the monarchy.

What it represents: the black-red-green vertical tricolor, adopted in various emblem forms across this period (colors reportedly linked to the country's Islamic, Durrani royal, and reform-era history), centers a changing royal emblem — typically a mosque flanked by sheaves of wheat — that is redrawn several times as reigns and constitutions change but the tricolor itself endures.

Paint guide

ProportionsVaried across the period, generally close to 2:3.

LayoutThree equal vertical bands, black-red-green (hoist to fly), gold royal emblem (mosque and wheat sheaves) centered; exact emblem redrawn under successive reigns.

Black#000000

Red#C8102E

Green#007A3D

Gold emblem#FFD100

plain black field with a white central emblem, Durrani-era standard

1747 – 1919

Durrani Empire and successor Emirate of Afghanistan

Kingdom, independentAhmad Shah DurraniSunni Islam (Hanafi, state religion)

Migration & conquest:Occupied by: British forces (Anglo-Afghan Wars, temporary)

Ruling house:Durrani dynasty (Sadozai)Barakzai dynasty

Who & why: Ahmad Shah Durrani, an officer in the service of the Persian conqueror Nader Shah, is elected ruler at a loya jirga in Kandahar in 1747 following Nader Shah's assassination — the event conventionally taken as the founding of the modern Afghan state. His Durrani Empire at its height stretches from eastern Persia to northern India. Through the 19th century the empire fragments and reconsolidates as the Emirate of Afghanistan, becoming the central battleground of the British-Russian "Great Game": Britain fights the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842, ending in a disastrous British retreat from Kabul) and the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880, after which Britain controls Afghan foreign policy while the emirate keeps internal self-rule). Afghanistan is never formally colonized, functioning instead as a buffer state between British India and Russian Central Asia, until full control of foreign affairs is regained in 1919.

What it represents: a plain black field was long used as the Durrani dynastic and later emirate standard, at various points bearing a central white emblem; documentation of exact emblem designs is inconsistent across this long span, so the field color (attested more reliably) is emphasized here over precise emblem detail.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo fixed ratio recorded for most of this span.

LayoutPlain black field, white central emblem (design varies by source and period; shown schematically).

Black#000000

White emblem#FFFFFF

placeholder maroon field — two millennia of successive outside empires

c. 550 BCE – 1747 CE

Ancient and medieval crossroads: successive outside empires

Various empires, no continuous local flagNo single ruler documentedVaried by era (Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, then Islam from 7th c.)

Migration & conquest:Conquered by: Arab Caliphate (7th–8th c.)Conquered by: Mongol Empire (1220s)

Who & why: for roughly two thousand years, Afghan territory is ruled successively rather than continuously by outside powers, with no single local polity to track. The Achaemenid Persian Empire holds the region from around 550 BCE; Alexander the Great conquers it in the 330s BCE, and Hellenistic successor states — the Seleucids and then the Greco-Bactrian kingdom — rule parts of it for roughly two centuries after. Later centuries bring Kushan, Sasanian Persian, and Hephthalite (Hunnic) rule, then a long Islamic era beginning with 7th–8th century Arab conquests and continuing through the Ghaznavid (10th–12th century, based at Ghazni), Ghurid (12th–13th century), Mongol/Ilkhanid, and Timurid (14th–16th century, based at Herat) dynasties, with the region later contested between the Safavid and Mughal empires before Nader Shah's Afsharid Persian conquest in the 1730s. This entry closes in 1747 with Nader Shah's assassination and Ahmad Shah Durrani's election at Kandahar.

What it represents: no flag can be honestly attributed to a continuous "Afghanistan" across this span, since no such continuous polity existed; standards and banners of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and various Islamic dynasties that passed through this territory are covered on their own pages in this atlas where documented (see the Persian Empire page for the Achaemenid and Sasanian/Afsharid periods). Shown here honestly blank rather than assigning a single invented banner to two thousand years of turnover.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no single attested flag for this compressed span.

Reading the tags

Various empires, no continuous local flag — ruled successively by outside powers

Kingdom, independent — sovereign under its own crown

Republic — sovereign, non-monarchical government

Communist / Soviet-aligned — PDPA government backed by Soviet intervention

Civil war / contested authority — recognized government without effective country-wide control

Occupied/client state — sovereignty exercised under foreign military presence

Islamic emirate — Taliban government under religious law

Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start

State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's

Find the records

Family history research for Afghanistan lives in a different project, Record Atlas, which maps which archive actually holds the paper for a given place and era.

Search Record Atlas for Afghanistan →

More of the atlas

This page is one lineage in a larger set. See the region-wide map and the other countries here, plus the empire pages covering the outside powers that once ruled this territory:

Flags Atlas indexSearch every country and hub South Asia hubAfghanistan among its neighbors Persian EmpireAchaemenid through Afsharid rule Mongol Empire13th-century conquest and the Ilkhanate Ottoman EmpireRegional context, western neighbor