Brewer's: Black Flags

Moslem soldiers. The banner of the Abbasides (3 syl.) is black; that of the Fatimites (3 syl.) green; and that of the Ommiades (3 syl.) white. Hence the banner of the Kalif of Bagdad is black, but that of the Sultan of Damascus is green. (Gibbon, chap. iii.)

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