The tugh is a standard made from a horse's tail attached to the tip of a pole, used as a symbol of sovereignty and command in the old Turkic and later Ottoman state tradition. The number of horsetails indicated the rank of its bearer.
Regarded as an emblem of sovereignty from the Göktürks onward, the tugh represented the authority of viziers, beylerbeys, and sultans in the Ottoman state. It also appears in the mehter (military band) as the "tugh section" (tuğ takımı). It is one of the oldest roots of the flag and standard tradition in Turkic state symbolism.