Pakistani flag
Crescent and star
I don't know what the Islamic meaning is but the two are one of the signs of Tanit - a goddess from the semitic part of the Roman Empire. I suspect the symbol must have been islamised. Andy Fear 9 August 1995
It is of interest that the moon and star appear on many coats of arms in countries like Hungary, indicating service in crusades (probably against Turks). In fact, my guess is that the symbols came about with the Turks; the Arabs don't seem to have adopted them much (Tunisia and Algeria excepted). Alex Justice 9 August 1995
There is more information on the Tunisian flag here
There is more information on the Algerian flag here
I heard that the star-and-crescent were the symbols of Constantinople (either due to the Virgin Mary or to some pre- Christian goddess), and were adopted by the Turks after they conquered the Roman Empire (Byzantium). Robert Czernkowski 10 August 1995
A commonly used symbol of Islam, the crescent and star, may represent a "conjunction of the moon and Venus [that] took place in the dawn sky of July 23, 610" according to Gerald S. Hawkins, author of Stonehenge Decoded (Ahmad 1992). Some believe this night exactly coincides with the night in which the Prophet [Muhammad] received his initial revelation from God. While it is true that this night is very close to the actual night of the first revelation, it is not certain that it is the exact one (Ahmad 1992). (Aggour 1995). Aggour, Kareem S.1995 Creation, Cosmogony, and Astronomy in Islam. Ahmad, I.D. 1992 Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer's Perspective on Religion and Science. Write's Inc. - International, Maryland. Kareem S Aggour 19 July 1995
This cannot be so. If you check the lunar calendar thoroughly, you will see that the conjunction happened on June 10 of the year 609. However, the influence of that was not related to the beginning of revelations. Muslims all around the world started using crescent after 1453. However, Ottomans were using the crescent even before that (Thomas W. Arnold, History of Islam, Sarajevo, 1989), simply because it was the symbol they inherited from previous tribal life in the early medieval period (1000-1100). The Byzantines started using the crescent around 610 on Tzar Heraklie's birthday. They saw the conjunction of Venus and Moon (Charles Dille, Pictures of Byzant, Sarajevo, 1927)... Velidaga Jerlagic, 24 September 1998
The Origins of the Islamic Crescent and Star from http://www.gabn.net/hassan/crescent.htm
"The Star and Crescent signifies concentration, openness and victory, as well as sovereignty and divinity. According to tradition, in 339 BC a brilliant waxing moon save Byzantium (now Istanbul) from attack by Philip of Macedon. To mark their gratitude, the citizens adopted the Crescent of Diana as the city's emblem. When the city became the Christian Constantinople in 330 BC, its Crescent assumed the significance of an attribute of the Virgin Mary.
In 1299, conquering what is now Turkey, Sultan Osman has a vision of a crescent Moon streching over the world; it thus became a symbol of the Ottoman dynasty, and when Constantinople fell to Muhammad II in 1453, The crescent came to represent both Islam and the Turkish empire. The star was added by Sultan Selim III in 1793 (its five points being established in 1844)."
This information found in "Signs & Symbols, page 42, by Clare Gibson and is available from Barnes & Noble Books. The ISBN number is 0-7607-0217-9 Giuseppe Bottasini, 28 September 1998
The thing that always gets me about the crescent and star is that the way it is usually depicted is astronomically impossible, in that the star is in front of the disc of the moon. James Dignan 23 July 1996
I believe that this is, sometimes oversimplified, an image of the planet Venus coming from behing the dark side of the moon. Of course, the star can not be visible though the dark part of the moon disc, at least until we (or someone else :-) make some big towns over there. Zeljko Heimer 24 July 1996
This is an old thread on the different types of crescents. I found just recently in Smith's FTTAAAW this expanation on the pages of Mauritania:
"Heraldry recognizes different kinds of crescents, depending upon the direction in which the horns face. The decrescent or moon on the wane has horns to the sinister; the increscent's waxing moon faces to the dexter. 'Crescent' refers to one of the Mauritanian type with its horns upwards; the opposite is called a crescent reversed. These distinctions are never used in vexillology and even in heraldry are largely theoretical."
So that is what Whitney Smith says. I quite agree that it would not be much sense to use special terminology for different crescents - it is much easier to say where the horns are pointing. The upper division woudn't give the description of Pakistani (pointing up toward fly) or Johor (Malaysia, pointing down toward fly), anyway. However this is the confirmation of my 'decrescent' term, that I couldn't find in any dictionary that I have. Zeljko Heimer 10 August 1996
From an article at a the Website called "At The Edge." It has an article on The Black Stone, by Bob Trubshaw and he makes references to the possible origins of the Crescent moon and stars on many muslem flag.
"Returning to the geometric significance of the Ka'bah, Professor Hawkins has argued that it is exceedingly accurately aligned on two heavenly phenomena. These are the cycles of the moon and the rising of Canopus, the brightest star after Sirius. In a thirteenth-century Arabic manuscript by Mohammed ibn Abi Bakr Al Farisi it is stated that the alignment is set up for the setting crescent moon - an ancient symbol of the virgin-goddess which still appears in the national flags of many islamic nations. In some flags - Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey - the crescent is accompanied by a star, perhaps representing Canopus."
T Funari, 12 May 1997
-- Anonymous, September 24, 2001