CRESCENT (Lat. crescens, growing)

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 411 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: COR-CRE

CRESCENT (Lat. crescens, growing) , originally the waxing moon, hence a name applied to the shape of the moon in its first quarter. The

crescent

CRESCENT (Lat. crescens, growing)

is employed as a charge in heraldry, with its horns vertical; when they are turned to the dexter side of the shield, it is called increscent, when to the sinister, decrescent. A

crescent

CRESCENT (Lat. crescens, growing)

is used as a difference to denote the second son of a

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

; thus the earls of Harrington place a crescent upon a crescent, as descending from the second son of a second son. An order of the crescent was instituted by Charles I. of Naples and Sicily in 1268, and revived by Rene of Anjou in 1464. A Turkish order or decoration of the crescent was instituted by Sultan Selim III. in 1799, in memory of the diamond crescent which he had presented to Nelson after the battle of the Nile, and which Nelson wore on his coat as if it were an order.
The crescent is the military and religious symbol of the Ottoman Turks. According to the story told by Hesychius of Miletus, during the siege of Byzantium by Philip of Macedon the moon suddenly appeared, the dogs began to bark and aroused the inhabitants, who were thus enabled to frustrate the enemy's

scheme

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

of undermining the walls. The grateful Byzantines erected a statue to " torch-bearing " Hecate, and adopted the lunar crescent as the badge of the city. It is generally supposed that it was in turn adopted by the Turks after the capture of Constantinople in 1453, either as a badge of

triumph

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

, or to commemorate a partial eclipse of the moon on the night of the final attack. In reality, it seems to have been used by them long before that event. Ala ud-din, the Seljuk sultan of Iconium (1245-1254), and Ertoghrul, his lieutenant and the founder of the Ottoman branch of the Turkish race, assumed it as a device, and it appeared on the standard of the janissaries of Sultan Orkhan (1326-1360). Since the new moon is associated with

special

SPECIAL

acts of devotion in Turkeywhere, as in England, there is a popular superstition that it is unlucky to see it through glass it may originally have been adopted in consequence of its religious significance. According to Professor Ridgeway, however, the Turkish crescent, like that seen on modern horse-trappings, has nothing to do with the new moon, but is the result of the baseto-base conjunction of two claw or tusk amulets, an example of which has been brought to light during the excavations of the site of the temple of Artemis Orthia at Sparta (see

Athenaeum

ATHENAEUM

, March 21, 1908). There is nothing distinctively Turkish in the combination of crescent and

star

STAR

which appears on the Turkish national standard; the latter is shown by coins and

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

to have been an ancient Illyrian symbol, and is of course common in knightly and decorative orders. It is doubtful whether any opposition between crescent and cross, as symbols of Islam and Christianity, was ever intended by the Turks; and it is an historical error to attribute the crescent to the Saracens of crusading times or the Moors in Spain.
Crescent is also the name of a Turkish musical

instrument

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

. In architecture, a crescent is a street following the arc of a circle; the name in this sense was first used in the Royal Crescent at Bath.

End of Article: CRESCENT (Lat. crescens, growing)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/COR_CRE/CRESCENT_Lat_crescens_growing_.html">
CRESCENT (Lat. crescens, growing)
</a>

(Previous)
CRESCAS, HASDAI BEN ABRAHAM (1340-1410)

(Next)
CRESCIMBENI, GIOVANNI MARIO (1663-1728)

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries was founded in 1997 and it exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email