After the fall of the Almohad empire the classical heraldic system seems to have been abandoned.This is particularly visible after the fall of Jerusalem and the reign of Al-Nasir Muhammad I (1299-1309) in Egypt when figurative badges of rank ‘old style’ disappeared almost completely in the islamic world. It was the time that the Muslim world cut itself off from the West. Information of these badges of rank is rare but instead we are provided with information about the flags of the world known by Catalan tradesmen, by the portolans or sea charts they used. Also there is a geographic treatise, the ‘Book of Knowledge’ which gives us information about the flags of the nations in the 14th century.[9]

At first the Kings of Tlemcen adopted the colour white for their color, their symbol of state, the crescent plqaced on their white flags. Such a flag is documented for the senior line of the Abd al Wadids by Marino Sanudo in 1321 and by Pietro Vesconte in about 1325.