This flag, originally dated to the year 1683 may well represents the most magnificent flag of the Turcica Collection of the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum which comprises fort- five flags. According to an old war custom, flags and horse tails were handed over to the emperor as a trophy, thus representing important objects of the so called “Türkenbeute”, the booty of the wars between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. The term blood flag or blood banner can be explained by its intense red colour.

A blood flag is distinguished from other flags by its colour but also by its monumental size and elaborate design. In the battlefields the holder of the flag was the highest dignitary (vizier, pasha, serasker).

The flag is composed of three panels sewn lengthwise together with a triangular bottom piece. It is made of blood-red silk twill and its fringes are decorated with a golden border of faille fabric A band of ten fields showing Koranic verses in different Arab scripts divides the flag into two unequal parts. The elaborate ornamentation consists of brocaded rosettes and stars that appear reciprocally on the front side and on the reverse. The central motif is Zulfiqar, the double-bladed sword of the Prophet Muhammad, won by him in the battle of Badr in 624 and passed on to his son-in-law and cousin Ali. The sword on the flag demonstrates that the whole world should be subjected to Islam, to complete the work of Muhammad and the four Rightly Guided Caliphs.

The blood flag was kept until 1867 in the Kaiser- und Königliche Schatzkammer (Imperial and Royal Treasury) and afterwards became part of the collection of the former Kaiser- und Königliche Hofwaffenmuseum (Imperial and Royal Museum of Arms and Armour). It was exhibited in 1883 on the occasion of the bicentennial celebration of Vienna’s relief from the Turkish siege of 1683 which gave rise to the assumption that the flag was a trophy seized from the Turkish troops at that time. However recent research has brought to light that the flag was acquired only after 1691.
 

based on German text by Nicole Montaperti

Bibliography:

Feigl, Inanc, „Blutfahne-Alem“, Viribus Unitis, Jahresbericht des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums (2001), S.27-46.

Weiss, Karl, Katalog der Historischen Ausstellung der Stadt Wien, Wien 1873.

Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Wien, Graz 1960.

Waissenberger, Robert, Schausammlung – Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Wien 1984.

Erben, Tino, Die Türken vor Wien – Europa und die Entscheidung an der Donau 1683, Wien 1983.

Wessely, Christine, Die Türken und was von ihnen blieb, Wien 1978.