Origins of the Turkish flag

[Ryujin]

This might burst your bubble. The origins of the Turkish flag are rooted in ancient Turkic culture. A 1500 years old Göktürk coin includes three figures of a crescent moon and a star around the possible figure of a leader.



Crescent and star is a wholly paganic symbol with a spiritual significance related to the ancient shamanistic beliefs of Turkic peoples and it's been used by various Turkic groups since then.

The question is; why is it associated with Islam today? in fact; crescent and star has little significance in Islam, not even mentioned in Qur'an, nor used by earlier Islamic states starting with Muhammad. But the fact is; the Ottoman Empire firstly started to use this flag in 1844, and since Ottomans were regarded as the leading power of the Muslim World; the symbol was associated with Islam.

North African states began to use this symbol on their flags after they got their independence from the Ottoman Empire out of influence. However; other Arab states do not use it, not even the strictest Islamic states like Saudi Arabia. Because it's little to do with Islam. So; Crescent and star being regarded as an Islamic symbol can only be explained with Ottoman impact. And yes; true, some Muslim countries that are irrelevant to the Ottoman Empire also use it, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, but these countries were founded only recently in the middle of 20th century, when the symbol had already been widely regarded as a symbol of Muslim identity, and they wanted to put emphasis on that. This is from the wikipedia:

In the later 20th century, the star and crescent have acquired a popular interpretation as a "symbol of Islam"

In conclusion; for Turks and Turkish people, the flag is pretty much ancient, and not connected to Islam. A paganic symbol that was incorporated into the religion by the influence of Turks. Also, what does the colour Red signify? the answer lies here, again from Wikipedia:

The flag of the Ottoman Navy was made red, as red was to be the flag of secular institutions and green of religious ones. As the reforms abolished all the various flags (standards) of the Ottoman pashaliks, beyliks and emirates, a single new Ottoman national flag was designed to replace them. The result was the red flag with the white crescent moon and star, which is the precursor to the modern flag of Turkey.

[Petros Houhoulis]

This might burst your bubble. The origins of the Turkish flag are rooted in ancient Turkic culture. A 1500 years old Göktürk coin includes three figures of a crescent moon and a star around the possible figure of a leader.

Crescent and star is a wholly paganic symbol with a spiritual significance related to the ancient shamanistic beliefs of Turkic peoples and it's been used by various Turkic groups since then.

The question is; why is it associated with Islam today? in fact; crescent and star has little significance in Islam, not even mentioned in Qur'an, nor used by earlier Islamic states starting with Muhammad. But the fact is; the Ottoman Empire firstly started to use this flag in 1844, and since Ottomans were regarded as the leading power of the Muslim World; the symbol was associated with Islam.

North African states began to use this symbol on their flags after they got their independence from the Ottoman Empire out of influence. However; other Arab states do not use it, not even the strictest Islamic states like Saudi Arabia. Because it's little to do with Islam. So; Crescent and star being regarded as an Islamic symbol can only be explained with Ottoman impact. And yes; true, some Muslim countries that are irrelevant to the Ottoman Empire also use it, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, but these countries were founded only recently in the middle of 20th century, when the symbol had already been widely regarded as a symbol of Muslim identity, and they wanted to put emphasis on that. This is from the wikipedia:



In conclusion; for Turks and Turkish people, the flag is pretty much ancient, and not connected to Islam. A paganic symbol that was incorporated into the religion by the influence of Turks. Also, what does the colour Red signify? the answer lies here, again from Wikipedia:

Are you sure you want to quote wikipedia?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_and_crescent

Star and crescent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ancient design of the star and crescent symbol as used in Byzantium in the 1st century BC

The modern red star and crescent (a heraldic decrescent) design used as the de facto Emblem of Turkey.

The star and crescent develops in the iconography of the Hellenistic period in Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom, and notably Byzantium by the 2nd century BC. It is the conjoined representation of the crescent and a star, both of which constituent elements have a long prior history in the iconography of the Ancient Near East as representing either Sun and Moon, or Moon and Morning Star (or their divine personifications). Coins with crescent and star symbols represented separately have a longer history, with possible ties to older Mesopotamian iconography. The star or Sun is often shown within the arc of the crescent (also called star in crescent or star within crescent for disambiguation of depictions of a star and a crescent side by side);^[1] In numismatics in particular, the term crescent and pellet is used in cases where the star is simplified to a single dot.^[2]
In Byzantium, the symbol became associated its patron goddess Artemis-Hecate, and it is used as a representation of Moon goddesses (Selene-Luna or Artemis-Diana) in the Roman era. Ancient depictions of the symbol always show the crescent with horns pointing upward, and with the star (often with eight rays) placed inside the crescent. This arrangement is also found on Sassanid coins beginning in the 5th or 6th century.
The combination is found comparatively rarely in late medieval and early modern heraldry. It rose to prominence with its adoption as the flag and emblem of the Ottoman Empire and of some of its administrative divisions (eyalets and vilayets), and later in the 19th-century Westernizing tanzimat (reforms).
In addition to Ottoman imperial insignias, symbols appears on the flag of Bosnia Eyalet (1580–1867) and Bosnia Vilayet (1867–1908), as well as the flag of 1831 Bosnian revolt, while the symbols appeared on some representations of medieval Bosnian coat of arms too.
The Ottoman flag of 1844 with a white ay-yıldız (Turkish for "crescent-star") on a red background continues to be in use as the flag of the Republic of Turkey with minor modifications. Other states formerly part of the Ottoman Empire also used the symbol, including Libya (1951–1969 and after 2011), Tunisia (1956) and Algeria (1958). The same symbol was used in other national flags introduced during the 20th century, including the flags of Azerbaijan (1918), Pakistan (1947), Malaysia (1948), Singapore (1959) and Mauritania (1959).
In the later 20th century, the star and crescent have acquired a popular interpretation as a "symbol of Islam",^[3] occasionally embraced by Arab nationalism or Islamism in the 1970s to 1980s, but often rejected as erroneous or unfounded by Muslim commentators in more recent times.^[4]
Unicode introduced a "star and crescent" character in its Miscellaneous Symbols block, at U+262A (☪).

Contents

[hide]

• 1History
  
  • 1.1Origins and predecessors
  • 1.2Classical antiquity
    
    • 1.2.1Hellenistic era
    • 1.2.2Persia
    • 1.2.3Roman Empire
    
    
  • 1.3Medieval and early modern
    
    • 1.3.1Classical heraldry
    • 1.3.2Islamic usage
    
    
  • 1.4Use in the Ottoman Empire
  
  
• 2Contemporary use
  
  • 2.1State flags
  • 2.2Symbol of Islam
  • 2.3Municipal coats of arms
  
  
• 3See also
• 4References
• 5External links

History[edit]

Origins and predecessors[edit]

Depiction of the emblems of Ishtar (Venus), Sin (Moon), and Shamash (Sun) on a boundary stone of Meli-Shipak II (12th century BC)

Venus, Sun and Moon on the Stele of Nabonidus (r. 556–539 BC) found at Harran (Şanlıurfa Museum)^[5]

Crescents appearing together with a star or stars are a common feature of Sumerian iconography, the crescent usually being associated with the moon god Sin (Nanna) and the star with Ishtar (Inanna, i.e. Venus), often placed alongside the sun disk of Shamash.^[6][7] In Late Bronze Age Canaan, star and crescent moon motifs are also found on Moabite name seals.^[8]
The Egyptian hieroglyphs representing "moon" (

N11) and "star" (

N14) appear in ligature, forming a star-and-crescent shape

, as a determiner for the word for "month", ꜣbd.^[9]
The depiction of the crescent-and-star or "star inside crescent" as it would later develop in Bosporan Kingdom is difficult to trace to Mesopotamian art. Exceptionally, a combination of the crescent of Sin with the five-pointed star of Ishtar, with the star placed inside the crescent as in the later Hellenistic-era symbol, placed among numerous other symbols, is found in a boundary stone of Nebuchadnezzar I (12th century BC; found in Nippur by John Henry Haynes in 1896).^[10] An example of such an arrangement is also found in the (highly speculative) reconstruction of a fragmentary stele of Ur-Nammu (Third Dynasty of Ur) discovered in the 1920s.^[11]
Classical antiquity[edit]

Hellenistic era[edit]

Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus (r. 120–63 BC) used an eight rayed star with a crescent moon as his emblem. McGing (1986) notes the association of the star and crescent with Mithradates VI, discussing its appearance on his coins, and its survival in the coins of the Bosporan Kingdom where "[t]he star and crescent appear on Pontic royal coins from the time of Mithradates III and seem to have had oriental significance as a dynastic badge of the Mithridatic family, or the arms of the country of Pontus."^[12] Several possible interpretations of the emblem have been proposed. In most of these, the "star" is taken to represent the Sun. The combination of the two symbols has been taken as representing Sun and Moon (and by extension Day and Night), the Zoroastrian Mah and Mithra,^[13] or deities arising from Greek-Anatolian-Iranian syncretism, the crescent representing Mēn Pharnakou (Μήν Φαρνακου, the local moon god^[14]) and the "star" (Sun) representing Ahuramazda (in interpretatio graeca called Zeus Stratios)^[15][16]
Further information: Byzantium § Emblem
By the late Hellenistic or early Roman period, the star and crescent motif had been associated to some degree with Byzantium. If any goddess had a connection with the walls in Constantinople, it was Hecate. Hecate had a cult in Byzantium from the time of its founding. Like Byzas in one legend, she had her origins in Thrace. Hecate was considered the patron goddess of Byzantium because she was said to have saved the city from an attack by Philip of Macedon in 340 BC by the appearance of a bright light in the sky. To commemorate the event the Byzantines erected a statue of the goddess known as the Lampadephoros ("light-bearer" or "light-bringer").^[17]
Some Byzantine coins of the 1st century BC and later show the head of Artemis with bow and quiver, and feature a crescent with what appears to be a six-rayed star on the reverse.

• 
  
  Star and crescent on a coin of Uranopolis, Macedon, ca. 300 BC (see also Argead star).
• 
  
  A star and crescent symbol with the star shown in a sixteen-rayed "sunburst" design (3rd century BC).^[18]
• 
  
  Coin of Mithradates VI Eupator. The obverse side has the inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΙΘΡΑΔΑΤΟΥ ΕΥΠΑΤΟΡΟΣ with a stag feeding, with the star and crescent and monogram of Pergamum placed near the stag's head, all in an ivy-wreath.^[19]
• 
  
  Byzantine coin (1st century) with a bust of Artemis on the obverse and an eight-rayed star within a crescent on the reverse side.

Persia[edit]

The star and crescent symbol appears on some coins of the Parthan vassal kingdom of Elymais in the late 1st century AD. The same symbol is present in coins that are possibly associated with Orodes I of Parthia (1st century BC). In the 2nd century AD, some Parthian coins show a simplified "pellet within crescent" symbol.^[20]

• 
  
  A star and a crescent appearing (separately) on the obverse side of a coin of Orodes II of Parthia (r. 57–37 BC).
• 
  
  Coin of Phraates V of Parthia (r. c. 2 BC to AD 4)
• 
  
  Coin of Vardanes I of Parthia (r. c. AD 40–45)

A coin of Sassanid king Kavadh I (r. 488–531). Kavadh was the first Sassanid ruler to introduce star-and-crescent motifs as decorations on the margin of the obverse side of his coins. Note the continued use of the star and the crescent appearing on either side of the king's head.

The star and crescent motif appears on the margin of Sassanid coins in the 5th century.^[21] Sassanid rulers also appear to have used crowns featuring a crescent, sphere and crescent, or star and crescent.
Use of the star-and-crescent combination apparently goes back to the earlier appearance of a star and a crescent on Parthian coins, first under under king Orodes II (1st century BC). In these coins, the two symbols occur separately, on either side of the king's head, and not yet in their combined star-and-crescent form. Such coins are also found further afield in Greater Persia, by the end of the 1st century AD in a coin issues by the Western Satraps ruler Chashtana.^[22] This arrangement is likely inherited from its Ancient Near Eastern predecessors; the star and crescent symbols are not frequently found in Achaemenid iconography, but they are present in some cylinder seals of the Achaemenid era.^[23]
Ayatollahi (2003) attempts to connect the modern adoption as an "Islamic symbol" to Sassanid coins remaining in circulation after the Islamic conquest ^[24] although there is no evidence for any connection of the symbol with Islam or the Ottomans prior to its adoption in Ottoman flags in the late 18th century.^[25]
Roman Empire[edit]

In the 2nd century, the star-within-crescent is found on the obverse side of Roman coins minted during the rule of Hadrian, Geta, Caracalla and Septimius Severus, in some cases as part of an arrangement of a crescent and seven stars, one or several of which were placed inside the crescent.^[26]

• 
  
  Coin of Roman Emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138). The reverse shows an eight-rayed star within a crescent.
• 
  
  Roman period limestone pediment from Perge, Turkey (Antalya Museum) showing Diana-Artemis with a crescent and a radiant crown.

Medieval and early modern[edit]

Classical heraldry[edit]

Further information: Crescent (heraldry), Star (heraldry), and Sun (heraldry)

...

The crescent on its own is used in western heraldry from at least the 13th century, while the star and crescent (or "Sun and Moon") emblem is in use in medieval seals at least from the late 12th century. The crescent in pellet symbol is used in Crusader coins of the 12th century, in some cases duplicated in the four corners of a cross, as a variant of the cross-and-crosslets ("Jerusalem cross").^[27] Many Crusader seals and coins show the crescent and the star (or blazing Sun) on either side of the ruler's head (as in the Sassanid tradition), e.g. Bohemond III of Antioch, Richard I of England, Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse.^[28] At the same time, the star in crescent is found on the obverse of Crusader coins, e.g. in coins of the County of Tripoli minted under Raymond II or III c. 1140s–1160s show an "eight-rayed star with pellets above crescent".^[29]
The star and crescent combination appears in attributed arms from the early 14th century, possibly in a coat of arms of c. 1330, possibly attributed to John Chrysostom,^[30] and in the Wernigeroder Wappenbuch (late 15th century) attributed to one of the three Magi, named "Balthasar of Tarsus".^[31]
In Roman Catholic iconography, the Virgin Mary is associated with both stars and crescent in her representation as the Woman of the Apocalypse, "clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars".^[32]
Crescents (without the star) increase in popularity in early modern heraldry in Europe. Siebmachers Wappenbuch (1605) records 48 coats of arms of German families which include one or several crescents.^[33]
The star and crescent combination remains rare prior to its adoption by the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 18th century. In the late 16th century, the Korenić-Neorić Armorial shows a white star and crescent on a red field as the coat of arms of Illyria.


...


Use in the Ottoman Empire[edit]

Further information: Ottoman flag and Flag of Turkey § History

Star-and-crescent flag of the Ottoman Empire, used as the naval ensign and state symbol from late 18th century, and as the official Ottoman national flag from 1844 to 1923.

The adoption of star and crescent as the Ottoman state symbol started during the reign of Mustafa III (1757–1774) and its use became well-established during Abdul Hamid I (1774–1789) and Selim III (1789–1807) periods.^[38]A buyruldu from 1793 states that the ships in the Ottoman navy have that flag, and various other documents from earlier and later years mention its use.^[38] The ultimate source of the emblem is unclear. It is mostly derived from the star-and-crescent symbol used by the city of Constantinople in antiquity, possibly by association with the crescent design (without star) used in Turkish flags since before 1453.^[39]
With the Tanzimat reforms in the 19th century, flags were redesigned in the style of the European armies of the day. The flag of the Ottoman Navy was made red, as red was to be the flag of secular institutions and green of religious ones. As the reforms abolished all the various flags (standards) of the Ottoman pashaliks, beyliks and emirates, a single new Ottoman national flag was designed to replace them. The result was the red flag with the white crescent moon and star, which is the precursor to the modern flag of Turkey. A plain red flag was introduced as the civil ensign for all Ottoman subjects. The white crescent with an eight-pointed star on a red field is depicted as the flag of a "Turkish Man of War" in Colton's Delineation of Flags of All Nations (1862). Steenbergen's Vlaggen van alle Natiën of the same year shows a six-pointed star. A plate in Webster's Unabridged of 1882 shows the flag with an eight-pointed star labelled "Turkey, Man of war". The five-pointed star seems to have been present alongside these variants from at least 1857.
In the late 19th century, "Star and Crescent" came to be used as a metaphor for Ottoman rule in British literature.^[40] The increasingly ubiquitous fashion of using the star and crescent symbol in the ornamentation of Ottoman mosques and minarets led to a gradual association of the symbol with Islam in general in western Orientalism.^[41] The "Red Crescent" emblem was used by volunteers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as early as 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War; it was officially adopted in 1929.
After the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the new Turkish state maintained the last flag of the Ottoman Empire. Proportional standardisations were introduced in the Turkish Flag Law (Turkish: Türk Bayrağı Kanunu) of May 29, 1936. Besides the most prominent example of Turkey (see Flag of Turkey), a number of other Ottoman successor states adopted the design during the 20th century, including the Emirate of Cyrenaica and the Kingdom of Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and the proposed Arab Islamic Republic.

• 
  ...

State flags[edit]

The Ottoman flag of 1844 with a white "ay-yıldız" (Turkish for "crescent-star") on a red background continues to be in use as the flag of the Republic of Turkey with minor modifications.
Other Ottoman successor states using the star and crescent design in their flag are Tunisia (1956) and Algeria (1958). The modern emblem of Turkey shows the star outside the arc of the crescent, as it were a "realistic" depiction of a conjunction of Moon and Venus, while in the 19th century, the Ottoman star and crescent was occasionally still drawn as the (classical but "astronomically incorrect") star-within-crescent. By contrast, the designs of both the flags of Algeria and Tunisia (as well as Mauritania and Pakistan) place the star within the crescent.

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  Flag of Turkey
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  ...

[Turul Karom]

The Crescent and Star has a long history amongst turkic and Turanid peoples as a whole and the followers of the religion of Tengrism. This was the ancient religion of the Hungarian peoples.

Here are some coins from the early Hungarian Kingdom.

The first is the Denár of Károly Róbert (1307-1342) which shows the tree of life and the crescent and star.

g2744.jpg

It has great significance as well in relation to the Turul bird, the national symbol of Hungary and the Magyar people, who roosts in the World Tree.

World Tree.jpg

Denár of Henrik Németújvári Bán 1267-1270 as vassal of Béla Crown Prince of Hungary (note the wolf as well on the reverse).

photo34613.jpeg

Hungarian Denár with star/crescent and the Hind:

photo59929.jpeg

The star and crescent is also famous today as the flag of the Szeklers and their land, Hungarians in Transylvania which is currently within Romanian borders:

szekely-zaszlo.jpg

szekler_flags.jpg

szk1.jpg

Turkish Turks demonstrating for Szekler autonomy:

SZEKEL TURKLERI.jpg

There is a great union of Asian steppe peoples and their symbols that transcends the appearance of Islam; I'm hoping that the crescent and star can be brought further back towards its origins rather than as a casual identifier of Islam in the west. Thanks to Ghostface for bringing up the topic!

[wvwvw]

The red in the Turkish flag symbolizes Turkish savagery..the millions of people that Turks butchered following their role model Chzegis Chan.

The Turks got the crescent and the star from Islam.

"The star and crescent develops in the iconography of the Hellenistic period in Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom, and notably Byzantium by the 2nd century BC. In Byzantium, the symbol became associated its patron goddess Artemis-Hecate, and it is used as a representation of Moon goddesses (Selene-Luna or Artemis-Diana) in the Roman era."

[Ryujin]

A very marginal theory claims that the Turkish flag does not depict simply a crescent and star, but the phenomenon of a Solar eclipse. From a geometrical point; the outer diameter of the inner circle of a crescent moon is larger than the outer diameter, but in the case of a Solar eclipse, the outer diameter is larger, which is the case in the Turkish flag.



The proportions of the Turkish flag were rearranged after the foundation of the Republic, slightly narrowing the symbols down. This might signify the progression of the solar eclipse period, and the previous flag used in the Ottoman Empire simply shows an earlier stage of the solar eclipse.



The star here is just the shining of the Sun. Like here:



And it all makes sense, knowing that the Sun is also a star. The background is red, signifying a sunset.



Why a Solar eclipse, though? it is interpreted as the manifestation of a Tengriist belief. Theoretically; the Turks advancing westwards, encountered a group of peoples who worshipped the Sun, especially in the Near East and Byzantines, in which the Sun was a sacred symbol. The Turks, who believed in Tengri, a God that ruled over the skies, and is the God of the Heaven, implied in their flags that Turks, as the representatives of the God of the Heaven cloud the Sun which they worship.

[Marmara]

"If Turkey is secular, why do they have the symbol of Islam on their flag?", "Why didn't Ataturk removed Crescent and Star from Turkish flag?" Most retarded asked questions.

[Bosniensis]

Illyrian symbol in Bosnia (very old)

[Marmara]

Illyrian symbol in Bosnia (very old)

It's true that Crescent and Star isn't uniquely Turkic, but it's also not rooted in Islam.

[Ryujin]

If it was rooted in Islam; it would have been seen in the early Caliphates. There is no such a thing recorded in Islamic history. It is written that Muhammad used a black colored flag. They didn't have any symbols on it and it makes sense since Islam would regard those kind of symbols as paganistic and idolatry.

[StonyArabia]

Nabateans used the Star and Crescent before any Turk showed up