Turkish flag in Medieval Damascus?

[Jan Hidders]

Dear historians,

When playing the computer game Assassin's Creed I bumped into the
Turkish flag waving all over Damascus in the year 1191. To see what
I'm talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20AV7_RkPpc

Does anybody have any idea how historically correct that flag is? I
first thought that at that time Damascus was under the rule of the
Great Seljuk empire, but after some Googling around I read that in
that year Saladin ruled the city. In Wikipedia a different flag is
shown for the Seljuk empire, and even if it was, then I suspect
Saladin would replace it. So could this perhaps be the flag under
which Saladin gathered his troops?

Any concrete information will be appreciated.

-- Jan Hidders

[ozanyu...@gmail.com]

I had the same conflict about the Turkish flag in the game. And there
were also some templars using Turkish language which made me more
confused and curious about the historical facts of the game. There's
no way the Turkish flag could be used at that time. It was a late
Ottoman flag (1844-1923). It was later adopted by the Turkish Republic
with small changes of the proportions of crescent moon and the star.
But in the game it is the exact same Turkish flag that is now being
used. And it isn't supposed to be around till 1936. So that flag
wasn't even created when the Seljuks were around at the time of the
third crusade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_flag