Sardinia – an island flying under false colours?

Sardinia – an island flying under false colours?

Sardinia – this word conjures up images of dream beaches, turquoise blue seas reminiscent of the Caribbean and holidays at their finest. However, something that every Sardinian is proud of is relatively unknown, namely the Sardinian flag, known as the ‘Bandiera dei Quattro Mori’.

Translated, this means ‘flag of the four Moors’. The archaic word ‘Moor’ has, of course, extremely negative connotations today, which is why I will use it with reservation and in quotation marks in the following. Nevertheless, the Sardinians like their flag so much that it is omnipresent on the island, which is why it adorns the bottles of Sardinia's best brewery, for example. However, the Sardinian flag raises a few questions, which I will attempt to clarify in this blog post.

The varied Sardinian flag

Strangely enough, there are several variations of the Sardinian flag. While the heads sometimes look to the right and sometimes to the left, the people on the flag sometimes wear headbands and sometimes blindfolds. To clear up the confusion, the Sardinian government decreed in 1999 that the official flag of Sardinia should be the one shown above. But is this historically accurate?

The origins of the Sardinian flag date back to the Middle Ages. It is undisputed that the red lines in Sardinia's flag represent the Cross of St George, who was an extremely popular saint in the Middle Ages and served as a symbolic figure for the Crusaders.

What role do the four ‘Moors’ play on the Sardinian flag?

Thesis No. 1:

The ‘Moors’ symbolise the opponents of the Crusaders, Moors from North Africa, with the headscarf marking them as prisoners. However, the Crusaders did not fight in Sardinia. Furthermore, the Moors were based in North Africa, so they had little to do with the Crusades. This interpretation is therefore unlikely, because the area of conflict between the Moors and Christians was not the Holy Land, but Spain. They had conquered, developed and civilised this country. So how did the Cross of St. George and the ‘Moors’ really come to be on the flag of Sardinia?

Thesis No. 2:

This theory refers to a legend according to which King Peter I of Aragon won a battle against the Moors in 1096 only because St. George intervened in the battle at a decisive moment and beheaded four Moors. This legend has a solid historical background, because at that time the Muslim Saracens were terrorising the Mediterranean and Sardinia as pirates. As a result, the flag with the decapitated Moors was invented as a deterrent and placed on the many watchtowers that can be found everywhere near the beach. According to this theory, the ‘Moor's heads’ on the Sardinian flag are the heads of those who were beheaded. However, this is a somewhat far-fetched idea, although it could be plausible if the battle had taken place in Sardinia. It is certain, however, that the conflict took place in and around Spain. Sardinia therefore had nothing whatsoever to do with it. The only argument in favour of this theory is that the Spanish regent was also king of Sardinia at the time.

Thesis No. 3:

The four ‘Moors’ represent four victories of the Catalan-Aragonese forces over the Arabs. At that time, Zaragoza, Murcia, Valencia and Mallorca were won for the Spanish crown. According to this theory, the four heads on the Sardinian flag symbolise these four new territories. But this also makes little sense, because what reason would the Sardinians have had to refer to this event in their flag? Furthermore, it was not the Spanish who were responsible for the liberation from the Moors, but the Genoese and Pisans, who intervened in Sardinia in 1016 at the request of the Pope. And why would the Sardinian flag symbolise the four new territories with their mortal enemies of all people?

Thesis No. 4:

According to the fourth thesis, the flag is much older, dating back to the 9th century. At that time, Sardinia still belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire. However, Sardinia was in a state of slumber at the time, as the Byzantines in distant Constantinople were preoccupied with their own affairs and were already too weak to exert any influence on the island. For the first time, political structures emerged in this power vacuum, leading to self-government and autonomy. Four districts were formed, each headed by a judge as the highest authority. They have therefore gone down in history as ‘judicates’. It is difficult to imagine that the judicates would not have created their own coat of arms.

Conclusion on the Sardinian flag

If this is the case, then the origins of the first Sardinian flag lie neither with the Crusaders nor with the Spanish. They go back further, namely to the time of the Judicates. This means that the three other theories are likely to be incorrect. After all, what could have been more obvious for the new rulers of the island than to choose a coat of arms representing the four Judicates? Everything speaks for it, nothing against it, and so for me it is clear: the flag represents the four judicates.

The Sardinian flag uses the Cross of St. George because this pop star among medieval saints is a fitting symbol of integration. Furthermore, the standard of the Emperor of Byzantium also features the Cross of St. George, which is why we can assume that the judges wanted to be as conscious of history and tradition in the design of their flag as all ‘flag developers’ are.
In each field, exactly one Justitia was placed for each judge, which, as we know, is the lady with the blindfold. She wants to be blind so that she can administer justice without being influenced by anyone. Because the flag variant with the blindfold has also been handed down, we can confidently dismiss the interpretation that these are Moors with headbands as pure fiction. If the Moors were really Moorish warriors, they would be depicted wearing warlike headgear and not a headband. Giving the Moors this cloth also makes no sense because it would be an accessory without meaning. However, symbolic power is the be-all and end-all for the flags of all countries in the world, which is why even the smallest details have meaning here.

Consequently, the correct Sardinian flag should depict the four judicates and a blindfolded Lady Justice for each one. However, if this were the case, Sardinia would today be sailing under a flag that, although still beautiful, is unfortunately incorrect.

With a Sardinian ‘Adiosu’, I bid you farewell for today.

Joachim Waßmann