Hadith of black flags

Islamic apocalyptic eschatological motif The Black Standard purportedly flown by Muhammad and mentioned in the hadith The hadith of black flags ( Arabic : أحاديث الرايات السود) is a motif featured in Islamic apocalyptics , about people carrying black banners. These hadith were used by some to justify following the Abbasid Revolution . Many Islamist and some jihadistic groups identify themselves with black banners bearing a white shahada .

Islamic apocalyptic eschatological motif The Black Standard flown by the Abbasid armies The hadith of black flags or black banners are a body of purported eschatological hadith (traditions attributed to Muhammad ) that describe an army emerging from Khorasan or "the east" bearing black flags, typically preceding the appearance of the Mahdi . Both Western scholarship and Muslim hadith scholars consider the traditions to be spurious. The medieval Muslim scholar Ibn al-Jawzi considered them to be forgeries. The Abbasids used the traditions to legitimise and marshal support for their revolution against the Umayyad Caliphate , widely disseminating them through propaganda. The Abbasid partisans of Abu Muslim and Abu Salama Hafs al-Khallal flew black banners and were known as the musawwida ( lit. ' the bearers of black ' ); the choice of black corresponded with the popular belief that the colour was associated with the Mahdi. Conscious of their implications, the Umayyads attempted to violently suppress the traditions' dissemination. In the modern era, the traditions were frequently referenced during the first Taliban takeover of Afghanistan , thought to be a precursor to a return of the caliphate .