Flag of Lebanon

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  Feudal Flag of the Lamaite princes during Middle Ages

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  Flag of the Maanid Emirate (1119–1697)

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  Flag of the State of Greater Lebanon during the French mandate (1920–1943)
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  Flag of the State of Greater Lebanon during the French mandate 1920–1943 (variant)
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  Flag of the State of Greater Lebanon during the French mandate 1920–1943 (variant)

During the French Mandate of Lebanon, the Lebanese flag was designed by the president of the Lebanese Renaissance Movement, the late Naoum Mokarzel. It was similar to the tricolour flag of France but with a green cedar (Lebanon Cedar) in the middle.

The present Lebanese flag was adopted just prior to independence from France in 1943. Seeking independence, the actual flag was first drawn by member of parliament Henri Pharaon[7][8] in the Chamber of Deputies Saeb Salam's house in Mousaitbeh by the deputies of the Lebanese parliament. It was adopted on 7 December 1943, during a meeting in the parliament, where article 5 in the Lebanese constitution was modified.

One theory is that Henri Pharaon based the composition of the flag on the Lebanese geography and therefore, the first red represents the Mount Lebanon and the second red represents the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the white represents the Beqaa Valley, which is situated in the middle of the two mountain ranges on the map of Lebanon. And the green cedar (Lebanon Cedar) in the middle of the white part touches each of the red stripes is added because Lebanon is sometimes metonymically referred to as the Land of the Cedars.[9][10] The composition of the white stripe (a Spanish fess) could have been inspired by the red-yellow-red Flag of Spain, where the flag structure is based on the Lebanese connection to the Mediterranean Sea and its Phoenician past that reached to the Mediterranean shores of present-day Spain.

However, the most likely inspiration for the modern flag is the flag of the precursor to the modern republic, The Mount Lebanon Emirate. The Emirate bore the flag of the Ma'an dynasty, a Druze dynasty which included one of the most influential figures in the shaping of an independent Lebanese identity, Emir Fakhr al-Din II,[11] who struggled through his reign to establish independence from the Ottoman Empire. The flag has the exact same color scheme and even a similar composition. Red, white, and green being the primary colors with the green wreath in the center being replaced by the cedar in the modern flag; it is entirely probable that the modern flag is simply a redesign of this older, dynastic flag. Further evidence is supported by the fact that many government institutions in Lebanon continue to use the Ma'anid flag, such as the flag of the Lebanese Armed Forces, but without the green wreath, and it is still in place to this day.

The following is a list of variant flags used in Lebanon

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  Design stored at WIPO
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  Flag as drawn and approved by the members of the parliament during the Declaration of independence in 1943
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  Flag used in the post-World War I under the Arab Administration (1918–1920)
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  Flag used in Deir El Qamar, Capital of the Maanid and early Chehab emirs (1830)
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  Rebels Flag during the Marada era
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  National Maanid flag
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  Rebels' flag during the rule of Prince Ibrahim[12]

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  Flag of the region of Lebanon after the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1918–1920)
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  Flag of the State of Greater Lebanon during the French mandate (1920–1943)
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  Flag of the Republic of Lebanon (1943–present)