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Flags of Yemen

From the ancient Sabaean kingdom of legendary wealth, home to the Queen of Sheba story, through a millennium of Islamic-era rule and the centuries-old Zaidi Imamate of the northern highlands, Ottoman and British colonial-era division into a northern kingdom-turned-republic and a southern Marxist state, reunification in 1990, to the civil war that has fractured the country's actual governance since 2014–15.

Yemen's modern flag — plain red, white, and black, no emblem — has flown over a unified state only since 1990, a shorter run than the north-south split that came before it; the two halves' pan-Arab tricolors, one crowned with a green star, the other with a red star in a blue triangle, are the direct ancestors of the flag that still flies today.

Scope of this page: the lands of present-day Yemen, ancient South Arabia to present, nine political entries including a genuine north/south split from 1918/1839 to 1990. The map below does carry a real internal split for that span — one of the best-documented internal partitions in this whole atlas. The 2014–15 civil war is noted factually and neutrally; Yemen's flag has not changed in law since 1990 even though on-the-ground control is currently contested among several factions. Part of a larger atlas — see the linked pages at the bottom.

North & South Yemen, 1839–1990

Yemen's own real coastline, split along the line that separated British-controlled Aden and its hinterland from the northern highlands — a division that hardened into two entirely separate, internationally recognized states, the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, before 1990's reunification. Press play, or drag the slider.

This is one of the atlas's strongest cases for a real internal split. Unlike the earlier ancient kingdoms, where no unified Yemeni state existed at all, 1839–1990 saw the territory genuinely governed as two separate pieces for a century and a half straight — first colonial/Ottoman, then a kingdom-turned-republic against a Marxist state, each with its own flag, capital, and currency. The line below solidifies for that whole span and dissolves only twice: never before 1839 (no partition existed to dissolve), and permanently after the 22 May 1990 union.

c. 1200 BCE

Sabaean Kingdom

Real traced coastline, split along an approximate historical North/South line (schematic, not surveyed) — the border dissolves before 1839 and after 1990.

plain red-white-black tricolor, unchanged in law since 1990

1990 – present

Republic of Yemen (reunified)

RepublicAli Abdullah SalehIslam (constitutional state religion)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Yemeni workers expelled from Saudi Arabia (1990–91)Emigration: civil-war refugees (2015–)

Who & why: North and South Yemen formally unite on 22 May 1990, ending 72 years of separate northern and southern statehood, under President Ali Abdullah Saleh. A brief 1994 civil war fails to break the union apart. Since 2014–15, however, a civil war between the Houthi movement, the internationally recognized government, and a Southern Transitional Council seeking southern autonomy has left the country's actual governance fractured among multiple authorities, even as the 1990 flag remains the country's sole legal one throughout.

What it represents: a plain pan-Arab red-white-black tricolor, deliberately stripped of either predecessor state's own emblem (North Yemen's green star, South Yemen's star-in-triangle) as a neutral symbol for the newly unified republic.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3, three equal horizontal bands.

LayoutPlain red-white-black tricolor, no emblem.

Red#A4302A

White#F4EFE1

Black#241F14

North (green star) & South (blue triangle, red star)

1967/1962 – 1990

North Yemen (Arab Republic) / South Yemen (People's Democratic Republic)

North: RepublicSouth: Marxist stateNorth: Abdullah as-SallalSouth: Qahtan al-ShaabiNorth: Islam (state religion)South: Islam (constitutional, despite Marxist rule)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: Indian merchant community from Aden (post-1967)Emigration: labor migrants to the Gulf (1970s–)

Who & why: a 1962 republican coup ends the northern Zaidi Imamate and founds the Yemen Arab Republic; in the south, the National Liberation Front drives out the British in November 1967, and by 1970 the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen declares itself the only Marxist state ever to govern in the Arab world. The two Yemens fight several border wars and briefly attempt unification talks before finally merging in 1990.

What it represents: both states adopt the pan-Arab red-white-black tricolor, but North Yemen centers a plain green star in the white stripe while South Yemen adds a pale-blue triangle at the hoist bearing a red star — the Marxist south's own distinctive mark.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3, both flags.

LayoutNorth: red-white-black tricolor, green five-pointed star centered. South (from 1970): red-white-black tricolor, pale-blue triangle at hoist with a red star.

Red#A4302A

North star, green#0B7A3D

South triangle, blue#1E5FAE

Zaidi Imamate's plain red banner, sword and stars (reconstructed)

1918 – 1962/1967

Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (North) & British Aden (South)

Imamate / ColonyImam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-DinZaidi Islam (Imamate state religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: Yemenite Jews to Israel (1949–50)

Ruling house:Hamiddudin dynasty

Who & why: the Ottoman collapse at the end of World War I lets Imam Yahya's Zaidi Imamate assert full independence in the north in 1918, ruling as the Mutawakkilite Kingdom until a 1962 republican revolution. The south stays under separate British rule throughout this span — Aden itself a Crown Colony from 1937, the surrounding sheikhdoms a loose protectorate — the two halves developing along entirely separate tracks decades before either used the word "Yemen" for a unified state.

What it represents: the northern kingdom's flag is a plain red field, sometimes bearing a white sword and stars, continuing the Zaidi Imamate's own older banner tradition; the south flies British colonial ensigns throughout, not shown here as it belongs to Britain's own flag lineage rather than Yemen's.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo fixed ratio recorded; shown at 3:2.

LayoutPlain red field, white sword and five stars (variants existed).

Red#A4302A

White#F4EFE1

plain red field — Aden's colonial-era trading ensign (reconstructed)

1839 – 1918

Aden under British control / Ottoman northern Yemen

Colonial / Ottoman suzeraintyNo single ruler documentedSunni Islam (Ottoman north); no state religion in Aden

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Indian & Somali traders into Aden

Who & why: the British East India Company seizes Aden in 1839 to secure a coaling station on the route to India, beginning well over a century of British presence in the south. The north, by contrast, comes back under direct Ottoman control from 1849, administered as the Yemen Vilayet, though the Zaidi Imamate in the highlands never fully submits and periodically revolts — a genuinely split, contested span rather than one Yemen under one flag.

What it represents: Aden flies British colonial ensigns; the Ottoman-controlled north flies Ottoman provincial banners. Neither is a distinctly "Yemeni" flag in this period, so this entry is an honest bridging placeholder rather than an invented national banner.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no distinct Yemeni national flag in this period.

plain green field — Zaidi Imamate's traditional color (reconstructed)

897 – 1839

Zaidi Imamate of the highlands (with Ottoman and Ayyubid-era interludes)

ImamateAl-Hadi ila'l-Haqq YahyaZaidi Islam

Migration & conquest:Occupied by: Ottoman Empire (coastal lowlands, twice)

Ruling house:Rassid dynastyRasulid dynasty

Who & why: the Zaidi Imamate is founded in the northern highlands in 897, one of the longest-running continuous political institutions in the Islamic world, though it never controls all of Yemen at once. The Ayyubid dynasty conquers much of the country in 1173 as part of Saladin's wider campaigns, followed by the independent Rasulid Sultanate (1229–1454), and the Ottomans occupy the coastal lowlands twice — the 16th century and again from 1849 — without ever fully subduing the highland Imamate.

What it represents: no single flag can be attributed across this near-millennium span; green, tied to the Zaidi Imamate's own religious and dynastic identity, is the best-attested traditional color, shown here as an informed reconstruction.

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ProportionsN/A — no fixed flag; shown as a reconstruction.

placeholder maroon field — early Islamic conquest era, no flag survives

630 – 897

Early Islamic Yemen (Rashidun through Abbasid-era rule)

Caliphal suzeraintyBadhan (last Persian governor, converted c. 628)Islam (early caliphal era)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: Yemeni tribes with the early conquests

Who & why: Yemen converts to Islam and comes under Rashidun, then Umayyad, then Abbasid caliphal authority from the 630s, ending centuries of independent South Arabian kingship. Direct caliphal control loosens well before the Zaidi Imamate's own 897 founding, leaving a patchwork of local governors and rival claimants across the intervening decades.

What it represents: no flag in the modern territorial sense survives from this era; various caliphates used banners rather than fixed national flags, and none can be attributed to Yemen specifically. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no attested flag.

placeholder maroon field — Himyarite Kingdom, no flag survives

c. 110 BCE – 630 CE

Himyarite Kingdom

KingdomNo single ruler documentedSouth Arabian polytheism (Almaqah)

Migration & conquest:Conquered by: Aksum, then Sasanian Persia (525–570s)

Who & why: the Himyarite Kingdom rises around 110 BCE and eventually absorbs the older Sabaean and Qatabanian kingdoms, unifying most of South Arabia under one crown by the 3rd century CE — a prosperous incense- and spice-trade power with its own writing system and monumental architecture, later touched by both Christian and Jewish royal conversions before Aksumite and then Sasanian Persian intervention ends its independence around 570–575.

What it represents: no flag survives or is securely attested from this pre-Islamic kingdom; ancient South Arabian polities used royal insignia and inscriptions rather than fixed territorial banners. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no attested flag.

placeholder maroon field — Sabaean Kingdom, no flag survives

c. 1200 – 110 BCE

Sabaean Kingdom

KingdomNo single ruler documentedSouth Arabian polytheism (Almaqah)

Who & why: the Sabaean Kingdom, centered on the great Marib Dam and its irrigation-fed agriculture, grows wealthy controlling the overland incense trade from around 1200 BCE, and is the kingdom traditionally identified with the biblical and Quranic Queen of Sheba, who is said to have visited King Solomon. It remains the dominant South Arabian power for the better part of a millennium before Himyarite rivals eventually eclipse it.

What it represents: no flag survives or is securely attested from this Bronze and Iron Age kingdom; its own royal inscriptions and dedications at Marib and elsewhere serve as its historical record instead. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no attested flag.

Reading the tags

Colonial / caliphal suzerainty — no independent Yemeni flag

Kingdom / Imamate — sovereign under its own ruler

Republic — elected or revolutionary government

Marxist state — one-party socialist government

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 Yemen 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 Yemen →

More of the atlas

This page is one lineage in a larger set. See the region-wide hub and the other countries here:

Flags Atlas indexSearch every country and hub Arabian Peninsula hubSeven countries of the Gulf and Red Sea coast