Editing Almohad Caliphate (section)

=== Emblem ===
[[File:Cantiga 181 miniature.jpg|thumb|Almohad soldiers in the ''[[Cantigas de Santa Maria]]'', depicted on the right under white banners<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stockstill |first=Abbey |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obXFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT49 |title=Textile in Architecture: From the Middle Ages to Modernism |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-000-90044-6 |editor-last=Ekici |editor-first=Didem |pages=21–22 |language=en |chapter=The Red Tent in the Red City: The Caliphal Qubba in Almohad Marrakesh |editor-last2=Blessing |editor-first2=Patricia |editor-last3=Baudez |editor-first3=Basile}}</ref>]]{{See also|'alam al-mansûr}}
Most historical records indicate that the Almohads were recognized for their use of white banners, which were supposed to evoke their "purity of purpose".<ref name=":17">{{Cite book |last=Stockstill |first=Abbey |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obXFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT48 |title=Textile in Architecture: From the Middle Ages to Modernism |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-000-90044-6 |editor-last=Ekici |editor-first=Didem |pages=21–22 |language=en |chapter=The Red Tent in the Red City: The Caliphal Qubba in Almohad Marrakesh |editor-last2=Blessing |editor-first2=Patricia |editor-last3=Baudez |editor-first3=Basile}}</ref> This began a long tradition of using white as main dynastic color in what is now Morocco for the later [[Marinid Sultanate|Marinids]] and [[Saadi Sultanate|Saadian]] sultanates.<ref>{{Cite book |last=العزيز |first=بنعبد الله، عبد |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1ghAAAAMAAJ&q=%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%85+%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B6+%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8 |title=مظاهر الحضارة المغربية |publisher=دار السلمى، |year=1957 |pages=43 |language=ar |trans-title=Aspects of Maghrebi civilization}}</ref> Whether these white banners contained any specific motifs or inscriptions is not certain.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Bennison |first=Amira K. |url=https://www.academia.edu/12023406 |title=The Articulation of Power in Medieval Iberia and the Maghrib |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |editor-last=Bennison |editor-first=Amira K. |pages=194–216 |language=en |chapter=Drums, Banners and Baraka: Symbols of authority during the first century of Marīnid rule, 1250-1350}}</ref> Historian Ḥasan 'Ali Ḥasan writes:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ḥasan |first=ʻAlī Ḥasan |url=http://archive.org/details/p.d.f3484 |title=الحضارة الإسلامية في المغرب والأندلس عصر المرابطين والموحدين |publisher=مكتبة الخانجي |year=1980 |pages=424 |language=Arabic |trans-title=Islamic civilization in Morocco and Andalusia: The era of the Almoravids and Almohads}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=As for the flags of the Almohads, the main flag was white, and on one side was written during the reign of Ibn Tumart: "The one Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, the Mahdi is the successor of Allah", and on the other side: "There is no god but Allah, and my success is only with Allah, and I entrust my affairs to Allah", and the white color continued with the rest of the caliphs, even if they adopted other colored flags, red, yellow and other colors. There is no doubt that these flags in their different colors delighted and pleased the people.|title=}}

According to historian Amira Benninson, the caliphs usually left their capital Marrakesh for war in al-Andalus preceded by the white banner of the Almohads, the Quran of 'Uthman and Quran of Ibn Tumart.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=101}}{{Sfn|Bennison|2007|p=88}} Egyptian historiographer [[Al-Qalqashandi]] (d. 1418) mentioned white flags in two places, the first being when he spoke about the Almohad flag in Tunisia, where he stated that: "It was a white flag called the victorious flag, and it was raised before their sultan when riding for [[Eid al-Fitr|Eid prayers]] or for the movement of the [[makhzen]] slaves (which were the ordinary people of the country and the people of the markets)".<ref>{{Cite book |last=عاصم |first=محمد رزق |url=http://archive.org/details/2006._201901 |title=رايات الإسلام من اللواء النبوي الأبيض إلى العلم العثماني الأحمر |publisher=مكتبة مدبولي |year=2006 |location=Cairo |pages=151 |language=Arabic |trans-title=Banners of Islam from the white Prophet's banner to the red Ottoman flag}}</ref> By the end of the Almohad reign, dissident movements would adopt black in recognition of the Abbasid caliphate and in rejection of the Almohad authority.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Buresi |first1=Pascal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQgzAQAAQBAJ&dq=Governing+the+Empire+Provincial+Administration+in+the+Almohad+Caliphate&pg=PA76 |title=Governing the Empire: Provincial Administration in the Almohad Caliphate (1224-1269): Critical Edition, Translation, and Study of Manuscript 4752 of the Ḥasaniyya Library in Rabat Containing 77 Taqādīm ("Appointments") |last2=Aallaoui |first2=Hicham El |publisher=Brill |year=2012 |isbn=978-90-04-23971-5 |pages=76 |language=en}}</ref>

The ''[[Book of Knowledge of All Kingdoms]]'', written by a Franciscan friar in the 14th century (well after the end of the Almohad period), describes the flag of Marrakesh as being red with a black-and-white checkerboard motif at its center. Some authors have assumed this flag to be the former flag of the Almohads.<ref name=":13" />

In modern times, Islamic al-Andalus in [[Andalusia]]n collective memory allowed more awareness of the colors of the [[Flag of Andalusia|Andalusian flag]], chosen in 1918 by [[Blas Infante]], a founding figure of Andalusia. Infante has explained the design of its flag by indicating that green was the color of the Umayyads and white that of the Almohads, the caliphates which represented periods of "greatness and power" in this region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Civantos |first=Christina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GO0_DwAAQBAJ&dq=Almohad+white+flag&pg=PA175 |title=The Afterlife of al-Andalus: Muslim Iberia in Contemporary Arab and Hispanic Narratives |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4384-6671-2 |pages=175 |language=en}}</ref>