apocalyptic circles admitted that the Abbasid banners would be black but asserted that the Mahdi's standard would be black and larger. Anti-Abbasid circles cursed "the black banners from the East", "first and last". A black flag was used by the Hotak dynasty in the early 18th century, following Mirwais Hotak's Sunni rebellion against the Twelver Shi'i Safavid dynasty and later by the Emirate of Afghanistan under Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901). On 21 July 1848, under orders from the Báb, the Bábí leader Mullá Husayn raised the Black Standard in Mashhad (in Iran's Khorasan Province) and began a march westwards. The mission was most likely proclamatory but possibly also to rescue another Bábí leader, Quddús, who was under house arrest in Sárí. After being rebuffed at the town of Barfurush, the group took up making defensive fortifications at the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi. It is reported the Black Standard flew above the Bábí fortress until the end of the Battle of Fort Tabarsi. According to Denis MacEoin, the Babis under Boshru'i were on their mission of spreading Babism, "by preaching if possible, by force if necessary." As Arab nationalism developed in the early 20th century, the black within the Pan-Arab colors was chosen to represent the Abbasid dynastic color. The Ahmadiyya movement also employs black and white colours in its flag (), first hoisted in 1939. Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the fourth caliph of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate, explained the symbolism of the colours black and white in terms of the concept of revelation and prophethood. Jihadist black flag See also Black Banner Organization Christian flag Islamic flags Jihadist flag List of black flags Tawhid Black Flag of Anarchism References Citations Works cited External links Collection of imagery of black flags used in Islamic extremism The Black Flag (al-raya) at The Islamic Imagery Project, The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point The Semiotics of a Black Flag (makingsenseofjihad.com) Usama Hasan, The Black Flags of Khurasan (unity1.wordpress.com) Abbasid Caliphate Standard, Black Flags representing the Shahada Islamic eschatology Islamic symbols Islamic terminology Islamism Jihadism Religious flags Religious symbols