Does anyone know what this is or where its from?

[Adil3tr]

Does anyone know what this is or where its from?

http://www.revleft.com/vb/picture.php?albumid=695&pictureid=6483

[noble brown]

i'll take a stab... afghan?

[Adil3tr]

I thought so, but I'm not sure

[Widerstand]

What other Arab-speaking countries were communist? Assuming this is an official badge, which is hypothesis of course. Can you tell us where this picture is from?

[Barry Lyndon]

They don't speak Arabic in Afghanistan-they speak Urdu, Pashtun, Uzbek, among other languages.

Leaving that aside, the only Arab Communist country was South Yemen 1967-90.

Can't tell if its Arabic or not.

[Widerstand]

They don't speak Arabic in Afghanistan-they speak Urdu, Pashtun, Uzbek, among other languages.

Persian too if I'm not mistaken.



Leaving that aside, the only Arab Communist country was South Yemen 1967-90.

Can't tell if its Arabic or not.

Fair enough, neither can I. It's just that type of alphabet/letters is similar for a lot of languages in the middle east (and adjacent areas), and I thought Arabic was the most common language using it.

[Red Commissar]

The Arabic alphabet had the same effect on regions that were impacted by Islam that Latin had on much of Europe. It provided a system for many peoples to base their written forms on.

Like Latin alphabet different regions adopted different modifications of the alphabet to accommodate differences in their language, say certain sounds that are not present in Arabic. That being said what little I know from text I can tell you this isn't Arabic. Arabic script is usually more joined, whereas this is more broken. It seems to be more along the lines of Farsi or a language related to it.

I have a friend who knows this thing much better but it's not his first language. It would help if you had a higher resolution picture or something that is more clear, or where you found this from.

[Jazzhands]

South Yemen, plus Soviet Afghanistan. I know they don't speak Arabic, but it's the best I could come up with. The more Muslim parts of the USSR might have created this as a way to blend communist symbols and Muslim symbols, like the coat of arms of the Transcaucasian SSR. They were a lot more lenient towards Islam than Christianity because they knew it's a huge part of practicioner's lives, more so than Christianity.

[Nolan]

My first thought was that it could be from a Central Asian Soviet Republic. Maybe a badge from some Middle-Eastern Party or Yemen?

[Red Commissar]

I'm pretty certain it can't be from an Arabic speaking country. The alphabet seems more inline with Farsi. With that in mind it could easily be from Afghanistan or a central asian republic like Tajikistan.

Edit: scratch Tajikistan. The USSR encouraged Cyrillic text over script.

[Reznov]

Aside from the geographical facts and whatever else is being said in this thread,

Does anyone know where this thing comes from?

[ZombieGrits]

Best guess would be Afghan, that script is one that's popular in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Also, the stuff added on to the hammer/sickle look to be the book and bullet(?) from one of the Afghan flags from the communist government

This flag here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Afghanistan_%281979-1987%29.svg

[ComradeOm]

My first thought was that it could be from a Central Asian Soviet RepublicProbably not, unless its older than it looks. Most of Central Asia had switched to either Cyrillic or Latin alphabets by the mid-20th C

[Rusty Shackleford]

My first thought was that it could be from a Central Asian Soviet Republic. Maybe a badge from some Middle-Eastern Party or Yemen?
im thinking possibly persian or iraqi communist parties. that or yemen. it looks old enough to have been in the 50s though.