The

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

used various of flags, especially as

naval ensign A naval ensign is an ensign (maritime flag) used by naval ships of various countries to denote their nationality. It can be the same or different from a country's civil ensign or state ensign. It can also be known as a war ensign. A large ver ...

s, during its history. The star and crescent came into use in the second half of the 18th century. A ' (decree) from 1793 required that the ships of the Ottoman Navy were to use a red flag with the star and crescent in white. In 1844, a version of this flag, with a five-pointed star, was officially adopted as the Ottoman

national flag A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but usually can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours ...

. The decision to adopt a national flag was part of the ''

Tanzimat The Tanzimat (; ota, تنظيمات, translit=Tanzimāt, lit=Reorganization, ''see'' nizām) was a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. ...

'' reforms which aimed to modernize the Ottoman state in line with the laws and norms of contemporary European states and institutions. The star and crescent design later became a common element in the national flags of Ottoman successor states in the 20th century. The current

flag of Turkey The national flag of Turkey, officially the Turkish flag ( tr, Türk bayrağı), is a red flag featuring a white star and crescent. The flag is often called "the red flag" (), and is referred to as "the red banner" () in the Turkish national an ...

is essentially the same as the late Ottoman flag, but has more specific legal standardizations (regarding its measures, geometric proportions, and exact tone of red) that were introduced with the Turkish Flag Law on 29 May 1936. Before the legal standardization, the star and crescent could have slightly varying slimness or positioning depending on the rendition.

Early flag

Pre-modern Ottoman armies used the horse-tail standard or ''

tugh A ''tug'' ( , tr, tuğ, ota, طوغ or , otk, 𐱃𐰆𐰍, tuğ) or sulde ( mn, сүлд, script=Cyrl), () is a pole with circularly arranged horse or yak tail hairs of varying colors arranged at the top. It was historically flown by Tu ...

'' rather than flags. Such standards remained in use alongside flags until the 19th century. A depiction of a tugh appears in the ' by

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (5 June 165628 December 1708) was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants. Botanist Charles Plumier was his pupil and accompanied him on his voyages. Lif ...

(1718). War flags came into use by the 16th century. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Ottoman war flags often depicted the bifurcated ''

Zulfiqar Zulfiqar ( ar, ذُو ٱلْفَقَار, Ḏū-l-Faqār, ), also spelled ''Zu al-Faqar'', ''Zulfikar'', ''Dhu al-Faqar'', ''Dhulfaqar'' or ''Dhulfiqar'', is the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Middle Eastern weapons are commonly inscribed wi ...

'' sword, often misinterpreted in Western literature as showing a pair of

scissors Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutti ...

. the

Topkapı Museum Topkapı ("cannonball gate"), sometimes spelled Topkapi outside of Turkey, is a Turkish word that may refer to: * Topkapı Palace, a museum in Istanbul, Turkey * Topkapı Scroll, a Timurid dynasty pattern scroll in the museum's collection * Topkap ...

exhibits a Zulfiqar flag claimed to have been used by Sultan

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite last ...

(). Two Zulfiqar flags are also depicted in a plate dedicated to Turkish flags in vol. 7 of

Bernard Picart Bernard Picart or Picard (11 June 1673 – 8 May 1733), was a French draughtsman, engraver, and book illustrator in Amsterdam, who showed an interest in cultural and religious habits. Life Picart was born in rue Saint-Jacques, Paris as ...

's ' (1737), attributed to the

Janissaries A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ( ...

and the

Ottoman cavalry ''Sipahi'' ( ota, سپاهی, translit=sipâhi, label=Persian, ) were professional cavalrymen deployed by the Seljuks, and later the Ottoman Empire, including the land grant-holding (''timar'') provincial '' timarli sipahi'', which constitute ...

. The

crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

symbol appears in flags attributed to

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

from as early as the 14th century ('), long before Tunis fell under Ottoman rule in 1574. But the crescent as a symbol also had 14th-century associations with the Ottoman military and millennium-long associations with the city of Istanbul, which became the Ottoman capital after its conquest in 1453. The Spanish Navy Museum in Madrid shows two Ottoman naval flags dated 1613; both are swallow-tailed, one green with a white crescent near the hoist, the other white with two red stripes near the edges of the flag and a red crescent near the hoist. According to Rıza Nur, sultan Selim I (1512-20) had a white personal flag, while the Ottoman Army flag was red (kızıl bayrak). During Süleyman I's reign (1520-66) the janissaries had a white flag while the timariot cavalry had a red flag. It was used as the Ottoman civic and merchant flag from 1793 to 1923. File:Szigetvár before the siege.jpg, Various Ottoman flags and ''tughs'' displayed before the

Siege of Szigetvár The siege of Szigetvár or the Battle of Szigeth (pronunciation: �siɡɛtvaːr hu, Szigetvár ostroma, hr, Bitka kod Sigeta; Sigetska bitka, tr, Zigetvar Kuşatması) was a siege of the fortress of Szigetvár, Kingdom of Hungary, that block ...

in 1566 File:Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, ms. Or. 9, fol. 45r.jpg, Plain red banners for the Sultan's retinue. From the ''Turkish Costume Book'' by

Lambert de Vos Lambert de Vos (''fl'' 1563 - 1574) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman from Mechelen who travelled to Constantinople to work for the diplomatic mission of the Habsburg Empire.

, 1574 File:Assalto per mare e per terra al isola, e S. Michele. 15.07.1565.png, Ottoman flags in a 1581 fresco by

Matteo Pérez Matteo Pérez de Alesio (1547–1628) was an Italian painter of devotional, historical and maritime subjects during the Mannerist period. He was also known as Matteo da Lecce by virtue of his hometown of Lecce. He spent the majority of his en ...

depicting the

Great Siege of Malta The Great Siege of Malta ( Maltese: ''L-Assedju l-Kbir'') occurred in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller. The siege lasted nearly four months, from 18 May to 13 September ...

File:Zulfikar flag.svg, Zulfikar flag typically in use during the 16th and 17th centuries. The design is a rough approximation of the Zulfikar flag used by Selim I in the 1510s. File:Zulfiqar flag at Guruslău (1601).svg, ''Zulfiqar'' flag captured during the

Battle of Guruslău The Battle of Guruslău or Battle of Goroszló ( hu, goroszlói csata) was fought on 3 August 1601, between the troops of the Habsburg monarchy led by Giorgio Basta, the Cossacks and Wallachia led by Michael the Brave on one side, and the T ...

in 1601 File:Coat of arms of Moldavia under Scarlat Callimachi, Sfântul Spiridon version.svg,

Coat of arms of Moldavia A coat typically is an outer garment for the upper body as worn by either gender for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front and closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, a ...

, . As supporters, flags which Sultan

Mahmud II Mahmud II ( ota, محمود ثانى, Maḥmûd-u s̠ânî, tr, II. Mahmud; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, ...

() may have granted to

Scarlat Callimachi Scarlat Callimachi or Calimachi (; nicknamed ''Prinţul Roşu'', "the Red Prince"; September 20, 1896 – June 2, 1975) was a Romanian journalist, essayist, futurist poet, trade unionist, and communist activist, a member of the Callimachi fa ...

().

Star and Crescent flag

Following the

conquest of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun o ...

in 1453, the crescent moon and star symbol started being used on Turkic peoples flags. Ottoman flags were originally commonly green, but the flag was defined as red by decree in 1793 and an eight-pointed star was added. The red version of the flag had become ubiquitous by the reign of

Selim III Selim III ( ota, سليم ثالث, Selim-i sâlis; tr, III. Selim; was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. Regarded as an enlightened ruler, the Janissaries eventually deposed and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa ...

. The five pointed star did not appear until the 1840s. With the

reforms in the 19th century, flags were redesigned in the style of the European armies of the day. The flag of the Ottoman Navy was made red, as red was to be the flag of secular institutions and green of religious ones. As the reforms abolished all the various flags (standards) of the Ottoman

pashalik Eyalets (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت, , English: State), also known as beylerbeyliks or pashaliks, were a primary administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. From 1453 to the beginning of the nineteenth century the Ottoman local government ...

bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

liks and

emirate An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...

s, a single new Ottoman national flag was designed to replace them. The result was the red flag with the white crescent moon and star, which is the precursor to the modern

. A plain red flag was introduced as the

civil ensign A civil ensign is an ensign (maritime flag) used by civilian vessels to denote their nationality. It can be the same or different from the state ensign and the naval ensign (or war ensign). It is also known as the merchant ensign or merchant flag. ...

for all Ottoman subjects. After the foundation of the

Republic of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in 1923, the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

maintained the last flag of the

. Proportional standardisations were introduced in the Turkish Flag Law ( tr, Türk Bayrağı Kanunu) of 29 May 1936. File:Ottoman army banner in the 1721 Hamse.svg, Army banner with crescent, as depicted in a 1721 illustration to 'Ata'i's ''Hamse'' File:Blue Ottoman Flag.svg, "Blue Turks' Flag", seen in flag charts ''circa'' 1780 File:Turkish Purple (Danker & Bowles).svg, "Turkish Purple" flag, also used in 1780s charts File:1783 Ottoman Flag.svg, "Turks Standard", in ''Bowles's Universal Display of the Naval Flags of all Nations'' (1783) File:Ottoman army banner as rendered by Hochenleitter (1788).svg, Crescent flag reported during the war with Austria in 1788. This is the reverse side; the horns of the crescent are therefore pointing towards the hoist (the inverse of the later national flag) File:Flag of the Ottoman Empire (eight pointed star).svg, Eight-pointed star flag (after 1844) File:Ottoman War Flag.svg, Ottoman war flag used during

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

and

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. File:Ottoman tui 1877 romanian capture.jpg, A 19th century Ottoman tugh

Source of the Star and Crescent symbol

It has been suggested that the star-and-crescent used in Ottoman flags of the 19th century had been adopted from the Byzantine.

Franz Babinger Franz Babinger (15 January 1891 – 23 June 1967) was a well-known German orientalist and historian of the Ottoman Empire, best known for his biography of the great Ottoman emperor Mehmed II, known as "the Conqueror", originally published as ''Meh ...

(1992) suggests this possibility, noting that the crescent alone has a much older tradition also with Turkic tribes in the interior of Asia. The crescent and star is found on the coinage of Byzantium since the 4th century BC and was depicted on Byzantine Empire's coins and shields of Christian warrior saints till the 13th century. Parsons (2007) notes that the star and crescent was not a widespread motive on the coinage of Byzantium at the time of the Ottoman conquest. Turkish historians tend to stress the antiquity of the ''crescent'' (not star-and-crescent) symbol among the early Turkic states in Asia.

Imperial standards

The imperial standard displayed the

sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

tughra A tughra ( ota, طغرا, ṭuġrā) is a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of a sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. Inspired by the tamgha, it was also carved on his seal and stamped on the coins minted du ...

, often on a pink or bright red background. File:Imperial standard of the Ottoman Sultan.svg, Imperial Standard of the Ottoman Sultan File:Naval standard of the Ottoman Sultan.svg,

Naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

Standard of the Ottoman Sultan File:Soldiers 1900.png, Standards used by the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

in 1900 The standard used by the last

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

Abdulmejid II Abdulmejid II ( ota, عبد المجید ثانی, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i sânî, tr, II. Abdülmecid, 29 May 1868 – 23 August 1944) was the last Caliph of the Ottoman Dynasty, the only Caliph of the Republic of Turkey, and nominally the 37 ...

(between 19 November 1922 – 3 March 1924) consisted of a green flag with a star and crescent in white on a red oval background within a rayed ornament, all in white. File:Caliphate standard of Abdulmejid II (1922–1924).svg, Caliphate Standard of

Civil ensigns

File:Latin (usually Albanian) Merchant Flag 1453-1793.svg, Latin (usually Albanian) Merchant Flag (1453–1793) File:Jewish Merchant Flag 1453-1793.svg, Jewish Merchant Flag (1453–1793) File:Muslim Merchant Flag 1453-1793.svg, Muslim Merchant Flag (1453–1793) File:Roman (Orthodox Christian) Merchant Flag 1453-1793.svg, Roman (Orthodox Christian, Greek) Merchant Flag (1453–1793)

References

External links

* * {{Ottoman Empire topics 1844 introductions 1844 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Ottoman History of the Ottoman Empire Politics of the Ottoman Empire Ottoman

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