Talk:Crescent
- Rather crude diagrams.
- also, I think the radii of the circles are not the same; the "inside" one has
a larger radius - obviously! David Martland 22:46 Dec 10, 2002 (UTC)
Er, I would say that there are two crescents.. one that is a circle of the same size covering all but the edge of a circle, the other is a circle with a -SMALLER- circle taken out of it.
_________
\__ \____
\__ \_
\_ \_
\ \
\ \
| \
| |
| |
| |
| |
| /
/ /
_/ _/
__/ _/
__/ ____/
__/______/
- OK, the ASCII crescent is moved here and I drew a new image for the article (FEAR MY ART SKILLS! XP). --Lorenzarius 13:42 Feb 26, 2003 (UTC)
exploitation of symbol by Western clothing companies
Isn't the moon crescent being exploited by clothing companies? Really, I have seen several T-shirts with the symbol on them...
everything i have read with regards to the symbol of the crescent and the star is that originated in byzantium. the crescent was adopted as the symbol of the greek colony of byzantium after they were saved by the light of the moon from a sneak attack from philip of macedon (alexander the greats father) during the fourth centurt B.C. later, in the fourth century A.D. when constantine the great was rebuilding the city of byzantium as his new capital he added the star as a symbol of the virgin mary who was to be the guardian of the city. when the ottomans captured the city in 1453 they adopted the flag as a bringer of good luck and, from there, it has spread to many islamic coutries.
It is impossible to know if this story is legend or not. In any case, crescents have been used as symbols by an enormously diverse range of peoples, and there's no real way of knowing for certain where the Ottomans got it. It could be a pre-Islamic pagan symbol, a Byzantine symbol, a combination of these, who knows?
Question
I read somewhere that the star and crescent is a controvercial symbol for some Muslims because it originated in the pre-Islamic Shamanist beliefs of the Turks. Is this true? What is the symbol's status in Arab countries, which do not really use the star and crescent in their flags? -- unsigned comment by IP 128.54.44.225 23:45, 15 February 2006
- All those who are interested in the matter can rather easily find out that the crescent was not used as a symbol of Islam during Muhammad's lifetime, and some back-to-the-origins or Salafi type Muslims dislike it for that reason (so the Taliban flag and the Saudi Arabian flag include Arabic lettering, in accordance with the practices of early Islam, and avoid crescents), but this hasn't prevented a red crescent from showing up on the OIC flag, and the Red Crescent is still the Muslim version of the Red Cross in all Muslim-majority countries... AnonMoos 15:08, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
The crescent was the symbol of the Ottomans and in the late 19th century as the weakening Ottoman sultan tried to give himself more importance by for the first time in the history of the dynasty playing up his role as caliph. The crescent then became associated with the caliphate (in the late 19th century). In Tunisia and Algeria the crescent is a symbol left over by the Ottomans, but notice that in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco (countries that were not controlled by the Ottomans) the crescent has never had any symbolic importance at all. Such that before the Islamic Revolution the symbol of the Red Cross ... in Iran was the Red Lion and Sun. The symbol spread to the Indian subcontinent as a symbol of Islam when after World War I the Muslims of India were afraid that the victorious powers would abolish the caliphate. The modern usage of the symbol in Central Asia can be tied to Turkish nationalism in the late 19th century that unsurprisingly looked at the uncolonized Ottoman Empire for inspiration. And its universal spread can be considered as tied to the fact that Christians, having their own cross, needed to find a symbol for Muslims. So millions of Muslim children for the past century have read Western books seen that the cross is for the Christians, the Star of David for Jews, and the crescent for us, and so its just kind of seeped into our conscience. So it makes a handy symbol if you need to come up for a graphic for a new Islamic center in Jersey, but its religious meaning is nil. Ahassan05 17:09, 9 July 2006 (UTC)ahassan05
To add to ahassan05's comments, the crescent was present in India as an Islamic symbol considerably before WWI, as Indian Muslims increasingly became concerned with the maintenance of the Ottoman Empire as the last remaining independent Muslim power. There were a number of organizations in existance in the 19th c to further this end, for instance the following:
Cemiyet-i Ihya-i Islam - Revival of Islam Society; Memalik-i Islamiye Coğrafya Cemiyeti - Islamic Lands Goegraphic Society; Ittihad-i Islam - Unity of Islam; Meclis-i Müeyyid-i Islamiyye - Assembly for Islamic Aid; Defter-i Iane-i Hindiyye - Register of Indian Contributions; Encümen-i Islam - Committee of Islam; Encümen-i Huddam-i Kaaba - Committee for the Maintenance of the Kaaba
Indian Muslims contributed quite large sums of money, supplies, and expertise to Ottoman endeavors, like medical care, the Hijaz Railway, refugee care, medical assistance during wars, etc.
AHassan, the crescent was used my countless ancient cultures. It was used by later Islamic caliphates as a secular symbol for their empire because it was adapted from the Sassanian Persian Empire which the Arabs conquered in 651CE. Religiously speaking, it has no significance in the iconoclastic religion of Islam. Nakhoda84 14:27, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
"Many fundamentalist"??
"Many Christian fundamentalists such as Jack Chick use this symbolism to make a claim that Allah was in fact Hubal who was, in turn, a moon-god worshipped by the pre-Islamic Arabs. This argument is sometimes used to argue that the god of Islam is different from that of the Jews or Christians." "Many"? If there are more than a few dozen such people I'll eat my hat.