Star and Crescent
The Borrowed Emblem
An Ottoman state emblem read worldwide as the sign of Islam, and adopted far later than most people assume.
The crescent is far older than Islam, appearing in Mesopotamian iconography of the moon god Sin, on Hellenistic and Sasanian coinage, and in Byzantion, the pre-Christian city on the site of Constantinople. The Ottomans flew crescent standards for centuries, but the star and crescent became a state emblem only in the late eighteenth century: a decree of 1793 placed it on the navy's flags, and a five-pointed version became the national flag in 1844. Ottoman prestige as caliphate carried it outward. Neither the Quran nor the hadith mentions it; some scholars reject it as an innovation while others treat it as permissible custom. Turkey, Pakistan and Tunisia fly it; Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan do not.
Light
Signifies belonging and presence: raised on mosque finials and carried by Red Crescent relief since the 1870s, it marks a place as Muslim, and recalls the hilal, the sighted crescent that opens Ramadan.
Shadow
Reduces a faith of nearly two billion to what began as one empire's badge. Western writers made it a metonym for the Ottomans and then for Islam entire, so it is often used about Muslims rather than by them.
