Coat of arms of the Arab Union
The coat of arms of the Union of Arab Republics (UAR; informally the Arab Union), officially known as the Republican Eagle (النسر الجمهوري an-nasr al-jamhūrī) is the ultimate heraldic achievement representative of the state, one of two national symbols alongside the flag of the Arab Union.
The symbology ultimately derives from a heraldic tradition stretching over millennia, one of the most well-known and venerated historical incarnations of which being the Eagle of Saladin which during the Crusades appeared as the personal standard of Saladin, the first Sultan of Egypt, followed by many derivatives (compare the Hawk of Quraish). Despite (or rathet perhaps as a natural result of) having evolved from ancient heraldic eagles and similar achievements representative of proto-natonalist heroes, in the early-to-mid-20th century the symbol became closely associated with anti-imperialism in the Arab region and Arab nationalism.
During the 1952 Egyptian Revolution which overthrew the monarchy, Gamal Abdel Nasser adopted a modern iteration of the Eagle of Saladin as the symbol of the new state and thus became a symbol of republicanism amongst the Arabs in general. Following the establishment in 1958 of the Arab Union, with Nasser as its first president, the Eagle of Saladin, renamed the Republican Eagle, became the official coat of arms of the unified Arab state, which it has remained to the present day.
