^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Iran in the "Book of All Kingdoms"

Persia
Saldania

See also:

Persia

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 December 2007

The 92nd flag mentioned and illustrated in the Book of All Kingdoms is attributed to Persia. This as depicted in the 2005 Spanish illustrated transcription, a yellow flag with a large red square on the middle in the ogival default shape of this source.

The anonymous author of Book of All Kingdoms describes the flag thus: "E el emperador de Persia ha por señales un pendón de oro e en medio una cuadra bermeja tal." (= "The Emperor of Persia has for his device a yellow flag with a red square in the middle", as translated in the Halkyut Society edition.) According to the 1912 illustrated transcription in English, the Halkyut Society edition (#80 on plate 17 between p.40-41), the manuscript "S" [f0fXXs] shows this flag just like the 2005 Spanish illustrated transcription.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 December 2007

Possibly this was the flag of the Jalayirid dynasty which ruled various parts of Mesopotamia, and western Persia from 1336 to 1432. A webpage at http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/IV67/index.html shows a miniature of a Jalayirid soldier carrying a yellow flag with a red device (possibly a square). The flags of Iran/Persia webpage I recently mentioned on this list uses the same image of the soldier to illustrate the flag of the Jalayirid Sultanate.

See:
http://www.geocities.com/rooyintan/Flags_Persia.html
http://www.geocities.com/rooyintan/persia/Jalayirid_ghulam_soldier.jpg
and for a map of Jalayird territory see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalayirids.
Of course the identity of this flag with the Jalayirids is only as good as whatever research was done by the producers of the miniature soldier.
Ned Smith, 15 December 2007

Saldania

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 December 2007

The 93rd flag mentioned and illustrated in the Book of All Kingdoms is attributed to "the kingdom of Saldania, a noble and rich city" - probably current Soltaniyeh, in Iran. This as depicted in the 2005 Spanish illustrated transcription, a yellow flag with a large red square on the middle in the ogival default shape of this source. This is identical to the 92nd flag, Persia, as the city was located in, and subjected to, the Persian Empire.

The anonymous author of Book of All Kingdoms describes the flag thus: "E el rey d’ella ha por señales un pendón de oro e en medio una cuadra bermeja tal." (= "Its King has for his device a yellow flag with a red square", as translated in the Halkyut Society edition.)
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 December 2007