Oman Flag: Meaning, History, Colors & Pictures

Oman’s flag has three equal horizontal bands of white, red, and green, joined at the hoist by a vertical red panel. A white national emblem appears near the upper hoist. This reference uses the 4:7 legal drawing; the law also specifies other sizes for particular uses.

Oman’s national flag combines a red vertical panel beside the pole with white, red, and green horizontal bands extending toward the fly. The red areas join without a dividing line. A white emblem of a sheathed khanjar, belt, and crossed swords occupies the upper hoist area.

Oman’s flag uses white, red, and green. The supplied artwork uses white #FFFFFF, red #DB171B, and green #028002, sampled from the Foreign Ministry’s downloadable reference. These are declared screen values, not universal statutory digital codes or a guarantee that every printed or woven flag will match them.

Official explanations associate white with peace, red with the former flag and battles against foreign invaders, and green with fertility and greenery. The khanjar and crossed swords connect the flag with Oman’s national emblem and heritage. These meanings accompany the design without changing its measured bands and hoist panel.

White represents peace in the Foreign Ministry’s explanation, while the Ministry of Information also mentions prosperity. It appears in the upper horizontal band and in the national emblem. In an accurate digital illustration, these areas are opaque white rather than transparent openings that reveal the background behind the flag.

Red recalls Oman’s earlier plain red flag and, in official explanations, the battles fought against foreign invaders. It forms both the vertical hoist panel and the middle horizontal band. These red regions connect into one continuous shape, while the white national emblem sits over the upper part of the panel.

Green represents fertility and the greenery of Oman’s land in the official explanation. It occupies the lower horizontal band, beginning beside the red hoist panel and extending to the fly. Its height equals the white and red bands, and its color is distinct from the red used above it.

The white symbol is Oman’s national emblem: a sheathed khanjar and its belt superimposed on two crossed traditional swords. It is not a separate crest invented for the flag. The Foreign Ministry traces the emblem to the Al Bu Said royal crest, adopted in the middle of the eighteenth century.

A khanjar is the traditional Omani dagger represented at the center of the national emblem. On the flag it is shown in its sheath, with the belt across the composition and crossed swords behind it. The curved lower shape belongs to the sheathed dagger, not to an exposed sword blade.

The white emblem belongs near the top of the red hoist panel, not at the center of the whole flag. The legal annex describes its upper placement without supplying a complete numerical bounding box. This artwork follows the Foreign Ministry reference for the emblem’s size and position within that area.

The legal construction drawing shows a flag 350 centimeters long and 200 centimeters high, giving a height:length ratio of 4:7. That is the reference used here. The same law also lists other dimensions for particular settings, so neither 4:7 nor 1:2 should be described as the only permitted ratio.

The red hoist panel is one-third of the flag’s total length and extends through its full height. The remaining two-thirds contain the three horizontal bands. On the supplied 2,100 × 1,200 master, the panel is 700 units wide and the bands extend another 1,400 units to the fly.

With the flag upright, the bands run white at the top, red in the middle, and green at the bottom. Each is one-third of the total height. They occupy the area beyond the vertical red panel, whose full-height red field remains beside all three bands on the hoist side.

For the 4:7 reference, begin with a rectangle seven units long and four units high. Reserve its first third as a red hoist panel. Divide the remaining area into equal white, red, and green horizontal bands, then add the white national emblem near the top of the red panel.

Examples of exact 4:7 height:length images include 700 × 400, 2,100 × 1,200, and 4,200 × 2,400 pixels, written length × height. Every component must scale with the rectangle. Multiples of the 21 × 12 construction grid also place both thirds on whole-pixel boundaries.

The law lists dimensions for different settings: 2 × 1 meters, 3.50 × 2 meters, and 3 × 1.7 meters for specified pole heights, plus 35 × 25 centimeters for cars and 26 × 17 centimeters for tables. These measurements produce several ratios rather than one universal rectangle.

Oman’s flag is not symmetric across either the horizontal or vertical centerline of a fixed hoist-left view. White and green occupy different heights, while the red panel and emblem sit toward one side. A half-turn also changes the arrangement, so the flag has a definite upright orientation.

Viewed from the opposite side of the cloth, Oman’s flag has the same colors and emblem in a horizontally mirrored arrangement. The red panel appears on the right when the hoist is on the right. White remains above red and green; no separate reverse-only inscription or additional emblem is specified.

The modern white, red, and green flag was adopted on December 17, 1970, replacing the earlier plain red banner. Later specifications refined its presentation, with equal-band changes reported in 1995 and a comprehensive flag, emblem, and anthem law issued in 2004. An amendment in 2020 changed the anthem text.

Oman’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Information identify December 17, 1970, as the adoption date of the modern national flag. May 22, 2004, is a later legal update, not the first appearance of the white, red, and green design. These dates describe different stages in the flag’s development.

The modern flag was introduced during the reign of Sultan Qaboos bin Said and adopted by royal decree in December 1970. The official summaries used here establish that institutional history. They do not identify an individual draftsman in sufficient detail to attribute every line of the design to one person.

Before the modern design was introduced in 1970, the Sultanate used a plain red banner. The present flag retains red while adding white and green horizontal bands and the white national emblem. A plain red historical illustration therefore represents an earlier category, not an alternative complete version of today’s flag.

Specialist flag histories report a 1995 adjustment that made the horizontal bands equal in height, replacing a version with a narrower red middle band. Accounts also discuss changed proportions. The evidence supports the year more securely than a single exact day, so this article uses 1995 without assigning a disputed date.

Royal Decree 53/2004 issued the law governing Oman’s flag, national emblem, and anthem on May 22, 2004. Its annexes include the flag drawing, dimensions, materials, and emblem. The decree took effect on issuance and was published on June 1, so its issue date and publication date should remain distinct.

The 2020 amendment examined here changed the words of the national anthem, not the flag drawing. Royal Decree 2/2020 replaced the relevant text in Annex Three of the 2004 law. A shared law covering the flag, emblem, and anthem does not mean that every amendment changes all three symbols.

The khanjar connects the national emblem with Omani dress, craftsmanship, and social tradition. UNESCO inscribed “Al-Khanjar, craft skills and social practices” on its Representative List in 2022. That recognition concerns the living cultural practice surrounding the dagger, rather than the flag image itself or a new adoption of the emblem.

The national flag is the complete colored rectangle with its bands, red hoist panel, and white emblem. The national emblem is the khanjar, belt, and crossed swords considered separately. A standalone emblem, government logo, or ceremonial standard should therefore not be substituted for an illustration of the ordinary national flag.

Oman’s law treats the national flag as a symbol of sovereignty and requires respectful handling. It addresses official display and also allows citizens to raise it for national, religious, and private celebrations under its conditions. Requirements for institutions and commercial uses should not be inferred from an educational drawing or download.

A square or circular crop can serve as an interface icon, but it is not the complete national flag. Cropping may remove the emblem, part of the hoist, or the ends of the horizontal bands. For accurate reference use, fit the whole rectangle inside the available space and retain its proportions.

Common mistakes include reversing the white and green bands, narrowing the red hoist to one-quarter, omitting the belt or swords, and treating one listed size as the only official ratio. Captions can also confuse the 1970 adoption, 2004 law, and 2020 anthem amendment. Check the drawing and historical label together.