AboutAlbert Kirsch Expertise I am more-or-less expert in vexillology (the study of flags). My expertise is particularly strong in North America at the level of city and county, but if I don`t know the answer I know a dozen people who do. So if there`s a flag in the newspaper or on TV that you have trouble identifying, let me know. I`ll do my best. But PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME TO APPRAISE A FLAG'S VALUE: (1) I have no expertise in that area and (2) even if I did, I cannot appraise something I can't see. Take it to a museum which has a specialist in textiles and the like.
Experience In this field, I designed the flag of Carroll County, Illinois, in 1974 (see http://www.internetni.com/~lanarklib/index.html). You can see my personal flag at http://www.nava.org/memflags.htm
Question The crescent in the Turkish flag is said to be a new moon. It was confirmed by the Turkish embassy when I made sure with them. But the horns of the crescent are pointing to the right, which suggests that it is not actually a new moon because the horns of a new moon are always pointing to the left. I once thought if it was a reflection in a pool of blood after a severe fighting which ended up in Turks` victory as one legend says, no wonder the crescent is pointing to the right because it is a mirror image. But actually it is not true. When the mirror is placed horizontally on the ground, the mirror image becomes upside down, but the right and the left stay as they are. I would be very grateful if you could provide a final showdown of why the crescent in the Turkish flag is said to be a new moon. Thank you.
Answer Yukihiro-san:
I think we must carefully distinguish between legend and fact. According to Smith (Flags through the Ages and across the World, 1975), according to one legend the Turkish flag describes a reflection of the moon occulting a star appearing in a pool of (red) blood after the second battle of Kosovo (1448), when the Turks beat the Crusaders. This led to the adoption of this flag by Sultan Murad II. Other legends refer to a dream of the first ottoman sultan. There are yet more legends.
Smith tries to get to the facts: Red has been a prominent Turkish color for 700 years (long before Kosovo). The star and crescent are Muslim symbols, but have a long history in Asia Minor before Islam. The ancient city of Byzantium had as its patron goddess Diana, whose emblem was a star, says Smith. I recall her as the Roman goddess of the Moon. Perhaps both are true. Smith may have meant that too, because he says (page 289) when the Emperor Constantine became a Christian (330 AD) he added the Virgin Mary's star emblem to "the previous crescent". The Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks in 1453, but the old emblem continued in use. It was eventually made the emblem of the Ottoman rulers.
Many Muslim countries use the crescent as an emblem. I note, though, that Saudi Arabia, home of the holiest sites of Islam, does not. Indeed, most of the countries that use it were once under Turkish influence of one kind or another (see Tunisia and Algeria, which were Turkish before they were French). So it may have been introduced to Islam by the Turks, not the other way around. But that's just my guess; one should do further research in this area.
As for it being a "new moon", you're right, of course, that in the northern hemisphere it is backwards. I suspect your contact at the embassy was ignorant of astronomy :-).
