Star and crescent
A crescent moon with a star, widely taken as an emblem of Islam and of Muslim countries, though many Muslims do not accept it as a symbol of their faith.
Meaning
The crescent and star is on the flags of several Muslim countries, and the Red Crescent is the Muslim world’s counterpart of the Red Cross. Annemarie Schimmel, in the Encyclopedia of Religion, writes that the crescent (hilal) is now generally seen as the Islamic equivalent of the Christian cross. Many Muslims reject it. Radio Islam, a Muslim broadcaster, writes that Islam has historically had no symbol, that many Muslims see the crescent as an ancient pagan emblem, and that some prefer the Kaaba, Arabic calligraphy or a mosque to stand for their faith. Readings of the star’s five points as the five pillars of Islam or the five daily prayers are, in Radio Islam’s words, “pure conjecture”: the number of points was not fixed on Ottoman flags and is not fixed on flags today.
Origin and history
The early Muslim community had no acknowledged symbol, and its leaders flew plain black, white or green flags. The crescent had no religious meaning when it first appeared on early Islamic coins, metalwork and ceramics, Schimmel writes. In the 11th century, when some churches, such as those at Ani in Armenia, were turned into mosques, crescent finials replaced their crosses, and a pilgrimage certificate from 1432 shows the holy buildings of Mecca topped with crescents. The Ottoman sultan Selim I (reigned 1512–1520) put the crescent on his flag, but it became the official Turkish emblem only in the early 19th century, appearing on postage stamps in 1863, and other Muslim countries followed.
The legend of Osman’s dream
A legend told of the Ottoman dynasty has its founder, Osman, dream of a crescent moon stretching from one end of the earth to the other. He took it as a good omen and made the crescent the symbol of his house.
Where Muslims disagree
IslamQA, after consulting scholars and muftis, found no known basis in Islam for putting a crescent on top of a minaret, and some scholars forbid it as an innovation. The Federal Territories Mufti’s Office in Malaysia agrees that Islam has no official symbol, and quotes the scholar al-Kattani calling the crescent on minarets an innovation that the Ottomans used as their official sign. Yet it concludes that the crescent and star have become a significant symbol for Islam, used to identify the faith as the cross identifies Christianity, and it accepts them on Malaysia’s flag, where the government gazetted them as the symbol of Islam as the official religion.
An older theory
Thomas Patrick Hughes, whose Dictionary of Islam appeared in 1885, held that the crescent had been a symbol of sovereignty in Byzantium before the Muslim conquest, and that Muslims first took it up after Mehmed II overthrew the Byzantine Empire. He added that Europeans regarded it as the special emblem of Islam, though it was unknown to the Muslims of the East. Schimmel’s later account finds the crescent on early Islamic coins and metalwork long before that.
See also
Rub el Hizb, Khamsa, Mihrab, Misbaha.
Sources
- Iconography: Islamic Iconography, Encyclopedia of Religion (Annemarie Schimmel), Gale, via Encyclopedia.com, section “The Shape of Spirituality”
- History of the Crescent Moon as a Symbol of Islam, Radio Islam, article
- A Dictionary of Islam, Thomas Patrick Hughes, 1885, W. H. Allen & Co., London (Internet Archive), “Crescent”
- Putting a crescent on top of the minaret of a mosque, Question 575, Islam Question & Answer
- Al-Afkar #36: Are crescent and star the symbols of Islam?, Mohammad Izzhar Faizzy Osman, 11 January 2019, Federal Territories Mufti’s Office (Pejabat Mufti Wilayah Persekutuan), Malaysia (archived copy, Internet Archive)
Last reviewed September 24, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research