The national flag of Bahrain (Arabic: علم البحرين) consists of a white band on the left, separated from a red area on the right by five triangles that serve as a serrated line.
Red is the traditional color for flags of the Persian Gulf states. The white is on the hoist side; the five points represent the five pillars of Islam.
The oldest known flags of Bahrain were simply red. But during the nineteenth century, a white stripe was added to indicate truces made with neighboring countries, and the serrated triangles were added to distinguish the flag of Bahrain from that of its neighbors. The flag originally had eight white points,[1] but this was reduced to five in 2002, so that the points could stand for the Five Pillars of Islam.[2]
