Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags by Tim Marshall

Author:Tim Marshall [Marshall, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781783962280
Publisher: Elliott & Thompson
Published: 2016-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

EAST OF EDEN

‘You shall accomplish a long and successful journey.

A prosperous wind shall blow in your flag.’

Henning Haslund, Men and Gods in Mongolia

The daily flag ceremony held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in May 2008. The Chinese flag was designed for the Communist revolution but its symbolism has deep roots in the country’s history; it now represents an increasingly strong and outward-looking post-Communist China.

EAST OF EDEN IS WHERE THE CRESCENT MOON OF ISLAM begins to fade, the stars of China rise, and we eventually reach the rising, and never setting, sun of Japan.

Most Bible analysts site Eden in the Ur region of Iraq. This is partially based on Genesis, 2:10–14, which refers to Eden and four rivers including the Tigris and Euphrates. Unless you are a literalist, the veracity of this is as important as that of King Angus of Scotland seeing the Cross of St Andrew in the sky in the ninth century. Which is to say, not very. The perception is more than the reality, and on occasion the perception becomes the reality.

Of more relevance is that this is considered to be the area from where the three great Abrahamic monotheistic faiths sprang. God had a quiet word with Abram, who lived in Ur of the Chaldees, and advised him that if he were to do a spot of wandering it would be in his favour. Via a circuitous route Abram ended up in what is now Israel and Palestine, by which time God had changed his name to Abraham and told him he would be the ‘Father of many nations’. And lo, it came to pass that one of the nations, which knows him as Ibrahim, founded Islam, which, as we’ve seen, rapidly spread east and west.

We perceive the vague line of Islam’s furthest reach in the west as we start to encounter the crosses in the flags and standards of Europe. Eastward the crescent and other Islamic symbols on state emblems stretch past Azerbaijan, as far as some of the ‘Stans’ of Central Asia, and on to Malaysia. After this they begin to peter out, although they still appear in outposts such as Brunei and on the regional flags of certain countries. The kaleidoscope of flags we encounter as we head east reflects the sweeping movements of ideas, peoples and religions across this vast continent. In many cases they represent a turning point in a nation’s identity – a response to Communism, or imperialism, for example. Within them we also find clues to the rich breadth of culture and history that gives ancient roots to the flags of these modern nation states.

Of the flags of the five Central Asian ‘Stans’, only two feature the crescent, even though all have majority-Muslim populations, albeit with sizeable non-Muslim Russian minorities. All are ancient cultures but new states, formed out of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This required some pretty speedy nation-building, having been Soviet republics for so many decades. With the vast Soviet repression over, the elites quickly set about establishing their own regional repressions.

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