What was the reason for the Ottoman empire to adopt the crescent moon as its flag/coat of arms?
score:5
There seem to be at least two sources of the Ottoman crescent, none of them related to Islam.
1) The standard of the Kayihan Khanate, founded by Osman Gazi (Osman I) in western Anatolia. It is said the symbol on the standard goes back to the seal or tamgha of the ancestral Kayi tribe.
2) The crescent and the star of Byzantion (later Constantinople). Here on a coin from the 1 century BC [Moushmov 3233]
(source: wildwinds.com) .
The same symbol is retained when Byzantion is part of the Roman Empire. Here on a coin from the reign of Trajan (98-117) [Varbanov 1638].
(source: wildwinds.com)
and it occurs on Byzantine coinage as late as the 14th century, like this coin [SB 2483] from the reign of Andronicus III Palaeologus (1328-1341).
(source: wildwinds.com)
One contemporary of Emperor Andronicus was Orhan Khan (the son of Osman Gazi) who conquered most of the remaining Byzantine possessions in Anatolia. He also married Theodora, daughter of Andronicus' successor John VI Kantakouzenos, so Orhans successors as khans and sultans may also have claimed to be descendants of Byzintine emperors.
When Sultan Mehmet had conquered Constantinople in 1453 he claimed the title of Kayser-i Rûm, emperor of Rome. Taking possession of an age old symbol for Byzantion/Constantinople like the crescent and the star might have seen a logical way of reinforcing this claim.
His grandson Sultan Selim, conquered Cairo & the Mamluk Sultanate and claimed the title Khalifa of Islam. This standard of Sultan Selim prominently features the Zulfiqar or sword of Islam, but also - six times the crescent of the moon with a star.
More post
- 📝 How far away could one be and still see the atom bomb explosions?
- 📝 Why were countries which were clearly aligned to one of the two power blocs during cold war a part of the non-aligned movement?
- 📝 Why did Germany attack Neutral Belgium in the first world war?
- 📝 Who had the shortest time in going from imprisonment to head of state within democratic processes?
- 📝 What do Marxists mean by "class basis of law"? As seen in linked article
- 📝 What were the factors that led to stagflation in the United States during the 1970s?
- 📝 Why couldn't soldiers sight their own weapons without officers' orders?
- 📝 In the US Constitution, did the Three-Fifths Compromise apply to Native Americans?
- 📝 What wars were started when an indebted country refused to pay?
- 📝 What was the role of Theon at the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 What heavy industrial work, if any, was done in USSR 1923-1927?
- 📝 What are the highest and biggest half-timbered buildings built during medieval era?
- 📝 What did the term "Parage" mean in middle ages Langued'oc?
- 📝 Why were balls used on the Medici coat of arms?
- 📝 Must scopes have revealing reflections?
- 📝 Before the Civil War, did the USA ever offer something like a "5-year plan" for the South to abolish slavery?
- 📝 How were ethnographic maps in the 19th century made?
- 📝 Help identify ship, possibly from New York area
- 📝 How many visits did the Mitford sisters or Oswald Mosley make to Nazi Germany?
- 📝 How did marrying off one's daughter help secure an alliance, in early medieval Europe?
- 📝 What are good predictors of the construction year of residential buildings?
- 📝 What is the oldest verifiably correctly translated written work?
- 📝 When did it become customary to address the King/Queen of England as Majesty?
- 📝 In ancient Rome, could free-born Romans become slaves?
- 📝 Who was Balavignus?
- 📝 Why was the capital of Poland moved from Krakow to Warsaw in 1595?
- 📝 Are there examples in ancient history of honor killing?
- 📝 What is this military march sampled in "Hell March"?
- 📝 How much resemblance did the industrialization of the Soviet Union bear to those of the rest of the world?
- 📝 How could manu be Latin as it originated in Ancient India?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What was the reason for the Ottoman empire to adopt the crescent moon as its flag/coat of arms?
- 📝 What was the reason for the Ottoman invasion of Otranto?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 What was the reason for inflation in Britain after the Black Death?
- 📝 During the defense of the home islands, what was Japan's plan for its forces off-island?
- 📝 What was the largest empire in terms of time of communication between its two ends?
- 📝 What was the reason for the near-mutiny on the Georgios Averof in 1911?
- 📝 What was the reason for the Dutch attack on Venezuela in 1908?
- 📝 What was the reason the Maronites lobbied for a state of Greater Lebanon?
- 📝 What was the reason for US Fed rate increase in spring 1928?
- 📝 What was the reason for Gandhi's visit to Africa
- 📝 What was the reason for the geographical error in Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech 5th March 1946?
- 📝 What was the official reason for not invading France until the middle of 1944?
- 📝 What was the reason for the ubiquitous pigeon farms in Soviet cities?
- 📝 What was the primary reason for the rise and success of the Roman republic / empire?
- 📝 What was the practical reason for East Germany to reunify with West Germany?
- 📝 What was the military equipment of a soldier of the Cholan Empire at its peak?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What is the reason for the selections of gun caliber size in history?
- 📝 What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing?
- 📝 What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
- 📝 What was the economic basis for West Berlin?
- 📝 What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Hitler died?
- 📝 What was the 1970s name for skinny jeans?
- 📝 Japan is known for being isolationist, so what cultivated its history of interventionism in the 20th century?
- 📝 Was Hiroshima targeted because its mountains would "rebound the explosion back into the city for more damage"?
- 📝 Was there a pre-determined arrangement for the division of Germany in case it surrendered before any Soviet forces entered its territory?
- 📝 What was it like for a coastal village to experience a Viking raid in around the tenth century?
- 📝 What was the original process for becoming a US citizen?
- 📝 What is the historical reason for 18 years being the most commonly accepted age of adulthood?