Acrescent shape (/ˈkrɛsənt/,UK also/ˈkrɛzənt/)[1] is asymbol oremblem used to represent thelunar phase (as it appears in the northern hemisphere) in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing theMoon itself.
InHindu iconography,Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his head, symbolising his control over time, as well as his attributes of both creation and destruction.[2]
It is used as theastrological symbol forthe Moon, and hence as thealchemical symbol forsilver. It was also the emblem ofDiana/Artemis, and hence representedvirginity. Inveneration of Mary in the Catholic Church, it is associated withMary, mother of Jesus.
From its use as rooffinial inOttoman mosques, it has also become associated withIslam, and the crescent was introduced aschaplain badge for MuslimUnited States military chaplains in 1993.[3]
The crescent symbol is primarily used to represent theMoon, not necessarily in a particular lunar phase.When used to represent awaxing or waning lunar phase, "crescent" or "increscent" refers to the waxing first quarter, while the symbol representing the waning final quarter is called "decrescent".
The crescent symbol was long used as a symbol of the Moon inastrology, and by extension ofSilver (as thecorresponding metal) inalchemy.[4] The astrological use of the symbol is attested in early Greekpapyri containinghoroscopes.[5]
In the 2nd-centuryBianchini'splanisphere, the personification of the Moon is shown with a crescent attached to her headdress.[6] Its ancient association withIshtar/Astarte andDiana is preserved in the Moon (as symbolised by a crescent) representing thefemale principle (as juxtaposed with theSun representing themale principle), and (Artemis-Diana being a virgin goddess) especiallyvirginity and femalechastity.
InChristian symbolism, the crescent enteredMarian iconography, by the association of Mary with theWoman of the Apocalypse (described with "the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" inRevelation)The most well known representation of Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse is theVirgin of Guadalupe.
On the domes of certainEastern Orthodox churches, particularlyRussian Orthodox ones, there appears across over a crescent. This symbolisesJesus Christ as two of thethreefold office, theKing andHigh Priest. It is sometimes mistakenly taken as a symbol of the victory of Christianity over Islam, but it has nothing to do with it nor Islam at all, as domes featuring the cross-over-crescent design were constructed inmedieval Russia in the 12th century, prior to the arrival ofIslam in Kievan Rus'.[7]
The crescent shape is a type oflune, the latter consisting of acircular disk with a portion of another disk removed from it, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circulararcs which intersect at two points. In a crescent, the enclosed shape does not include the center of the original disk.
The tapered regions towards the points of intersection of the two arcs are known as the "horns" of the crescent. The classical crescent shape has its horns pointing upward (and is often worn as horns when worn as a crown or diadem, e.g. in depictions of the lunar goddess, or in the headdress of Persian kings, etc.[8]
The wordcrescent is derivedetymologically from the present participle of the Latin verbcrescere "to grow", technically denoting the waxing moon (luna crescens). As seen from the northern hemisphere, the waxing Moon tends to appear with its horns pointing towards the left, and conversely the waning Moon with its horns pointing towards the right; the English wordcrescent may however refer to the shape regardless of its orientation, except for the technical language ofblazoning used inheraldry, where the word "increscent" refers to a crescent shape with its horns to the left, and "decrescent" refers to one with its horns to the right, while the word "crescent" on its own denotes a crescent shape with horns pointing upward.[9]
The shape of the lit side of a spherical body (most notably the Moon) that appears to be less than half illuminated by the Sun as seen by the viewer appears in a different shape from what is generally termed a crescent in planar geometry: Assuming theterminator lies on agreat circle, the crescent Moon will actually appear as the figure bounded by a half-ellipse and a half-circle, with the major axis of the ellipse coinciding with a diameter of the semicircle.
Unicode encodes a crescent (increscent) at U+263D (☽) and a decrescent at U+263E (☾).TheMiscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block provides variants with faces as emoji:U+1F31B 🌛FIRST QUARTER MOON WITH FACE andU+1F31C 🌜LAST QUARTER MOON WITH FACE.
The crescent shape is used to represent the Moon, and the Moon deityNanna/Sin from an early time, visible inAkkadiancylinder seals as early as 2300 BC.
TheEgyptian logograph representing the Moon also had a crescent shape 𓇹 (GardinerN11,ı͗ꜥḥ "moon" (with increscent and decrescent variants); variant N12 𓇺). In addition, there is a19th-dynasty hieroglyph representing the "moon with its lower half obscured (N9 𓇷psḏ, with a variant with a crescent shape N10 𓇸).[10]
The crescent was well used in the iconography of theancient Near East and was used by thePhoenicians in the 8th century BC as far asCarthage andNumidia in modernTunisia andAlgeria. The crescent and star also appears on pre-Islamic coins of South Arabia.[11]
The combination ofstar and crescent also arises in theancient Near East, representing theMoon andIshtar (the planet Venus), often combined into a triad with thesolar disk.[12] It was inherited both inSassanian andHellenistic iconography.
Selene, themoon goddess, was depicted with a crescent upon her head, often referred to as herhorns, and a major identifying feature of hers in ancient works of art.[13][14]
In the iconography of theHellenistic period, the crescent became the symbol ofArtemis-Diana, the virgin hunter goddess associated with the Moon. Numerous depictions show Artemis-Diana wearing the crescent Moon as part of her headdress.The related symbol of thestar and crescent was the emblem of theMithradates dynasty in theKingdom of Pontus and was also used as the emblem ofByzantium.
The crescent remained in use as an emblem in the Sasanian Empire, used as aZoroastrian regal or astrological symbol. In theCrusades it came to be associated with theOrient (theByzantine Empire, theLevant andOutremer in general) and was widely used (often alongside astar) inCrusader seals andcoins. It was used as aheraldic charge by the later 13th century.Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus, the claimant to theByzantine Empire who ruled Cyprus until overthrown by the crusading KingRichard I of England, used arms with "a crescent of gold on a shade of azure, with a blazing star of eight points". Later, King Richard granted the same as the coat of arms of the city ofPortsmouth, in recognition of the significant involvement of soldiers, sailors, and vessels from Portsmouth in the conquest of Cyprus.[15] This remainsPortsmouth's coat of arms up to the present.
Anna Notaras, daughter of the lastmegas doux of the Byzantine EmpireLoukas Notaras, after the fall of Constantinople and her emigration to Italy, made a seal with her coat of arms which included "two lions holding above the crescent a cross or a sword".[16]
From its use in the Sasanian Empire, the crescent also found its way into Islamic iconography after theMuslim conquest of Persia.Umar is said to have hung two crescent-shaped ornaments captured from the Sasanian capital ofCtesiphon in theKaaba.[17]The crescent also became the symbol of theUmayyad Caliphate.[citation needed] The crescent appears to have been adopted as an emblem onmilitary flags by the Islamic armies from at least the 13th century, although the scholarly consensus holds that the widespread use of the crescent in Islam develops later, during the 14th to 15th century.[18]The use of such flags is reflected in the 14th-centuryLibro del Conoscimiento and theCatalan Atlas.Examples include the flags attributed toGabes,Tlemcen,Tunis andBuda,[19]Nubia/Dongola (documented byAngelino Dulcert in 1339) and theMamluks of Egypt.[20]
The Roman Catholic fashion of depictingMadonna standing or sitting on a crescent develops in the 15th century.
The goddessDiana was associated with the Moon in classical mythology. In reference to this, feminine jewelry representing crescents, especiallydiadems, became popular in the early modern period. Thetarot card of the "Popess" also wears a crescent on her head.
Conrad Grünenberg in hisPilgrimage to theHoly Land (1486) consistently depicts cities in the Holy Land with crescent finials.[21] Flags with crescents appear to have been used on Ottoman vessels since at least the 16th century.
Prints depicting theBattle of Lepanto (1571), including the print byAgostino Barberigo of Rome made just a few weeks after the battle,[22] and the Martino Rota of Venice in the following year, show the Ottoman vessels displaying flags with one or several crescents in various orientations (as do the monumental paintings commissioned later based on these prints). Rota also shows numerous crescent finials, both on ships and on fortresses depicted in the background, as well as some finials with stars or suns radiant, and in some cases a sun radiant combined with a crescent in the star-and-crescent configuration.
The official adoption ofstar and crescent as theOttoman state symbol started during the reign of SultanMustafa III (1757–1774) and its use became well-established during SultanAbdul Hamid I (1774–1789) and SultanSelim III (1789–1807) periods. Abuyruldu (decree) from 1793 states that the ships in theOttoman navy have that flag.[23]
Muhammad Ali, who became Pasha ofEgypt in 1805, introduced the firstnational flag of Egypt, red with three white crescents, each accompanied by a white star.
The association of the crescent withthe Ottoman Empire appears to have resulted in a gradual association of the crescent shape withIslam in the 20th century.[further explanation needed] ARed Crescent appears to have been used as a replacement of theRed Cross as early as in theRusso-Turkish War of 1877/8, and it was officially adopted in 1929.
While some Islamic organisations since the 1970s have embraced the crescent as their logo or emblem (e.g.Crescent International magazine, established 1980), some Muslim publications tend to emphasize that the interpretation of the crescent, historically used on the banners of Muslim armies, as a "religious symbol" of Islam was an error made by the "Christians of Europe".[24] The identification of the crescent as an "Islamic symbol" is mentioned byJames Hastings as a "common error" to which "even approved writers on Oriental subjects" are prone as early as 1928.[25]
The crescent was used on a flag of theAmerican Revolutionary War and was called theLiberty (or Moultrie) Flag.
The symbol of theTriple Goddess is a circle flanked by a left facing and right facing crescent, which represents amaiden,mother andcrone archetype.[26] Thebiohazard symbol bears peculiar resemblance to the triple crescent badge ofHenry II of France.
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The crescent has been used as aheraldic charge since the 13th century. In heraldic terminology, the term "crescent" when used alone refers to a crescent with the horns pointing upward. A crescent with the horns pointing left (dexter) is called "a crescent increscent" (or simply "an increscent"), and when the horns are pointing right (sinister), it is called "a crescent decrescent" (or "a decrescent"). A crescent with horns pointing down is called "a crescent reversed". Two crescents with horns pointing away from each other are called "addorsed".[27]Siebmachers Wappenbuch (1605) has 48 coats of arms with one or more crescents, for example:[28]
In English heraldry, the crescent is used as adifference denoting a second son.[27]
![Coat of arms of the Neuamt bailiwick of Zürich (16th century).[29] Its reversed crescent was taken up in the 20th-century municipal coats of arms of Niederglatt, Neerach and Stadel (canton of Zürich).](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.m.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWappen_Neuamt.png)
The crescent remains in use asastrological symbol andastronomical symbol representing the Moon. Use of a standalone crescent in flags is less common than thestar and crescent combination. Crescents without stars are found in theSouth Carolina state flag (1861), theflag of Maldives (1965), theflag of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (1981)[30] and the flag of theArab League.
New Orleans is nicknamed "the Crescent City", and a crescent (or crescent and star) is used to represent the city in official emblems.[31]
Crescents, often with faces, are found on numerous modern municipal coats of arms in Europe, e.g.France:Katzenthal,Mortcerf;Germany:Bönnigheim,Dettighofen,Dogern,Jesenwang,Karstädt,Michelfeld (Angelbachtal),Waldbronn;Italy:Province of Agrigento;Malta:Qormi;Sweden:Trosa;Switzerland:Boswil,Dättlikon,Neerach (from the 16th-centuryNeuamt coat of arms).
The crescent printed onmilitary ration boxes is theUS Department of Defense symbol for subsistence items. The symbol is used on packaged foodstuffs but not on fresh produce or on items intended for resale.[32]
Since 1993, the crescent has also been in use aschaplain badge forMuslim chaplains in theUS military.[3]
The termcrescent may also refer to objects with a shape reminiscent of the crescent shape, such ashouses forming an arc,a type of solitaire game,Crescent Nebula,glomerular crescent (crescent shaped scar of theglomeruli of the kidney),[33][34] theFertile Crescent (the fertile area of land betweenMesopotamia andEgypt roughly forming a crescent shape), and thecroissant (the French form of the word) for the crescent-shaped pastry.
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