Hexagram - Usage By Muslims

Usage By Muslims

• Hexagram at Humayun's Tomb, Delhi, India

• Hexagram in Islamic stonework at the Qutb complex, Delhi, India

• Hexagram on obverse of Moroccan 4 Falus coin (1873)

• Hexagram on the Minaret of Arasta Mosque (Prizren)

• Hexagram on the flag of Hayreddin Barbarossa

The symbol is known in Arabic as نجمة داوود, Najmat Dāwūd (Star of David) or خاتم سليمان Khātem Sulaymān (Seal of Solomon), but "Seal of Solomon" may also refer to a pentagram or a species of plant.

In various places in the Qur'an, it is written that David and King Solomon (Arabic, Suliman or Sulayman) were prophets and kings and therefore they are revered figures by Muslims. The Medieval pre-Ottoman Anatolian beyliks of the Karamanids and Jandarids used the star on their flag. The symbol also used on Hayreddin Barbarossa flag. Even today, the star can be found in mosques and on other Arabic and Islamic artifacts.

Professor Gershom Sholem theorizes that the "Star of David" originates in the writings of Aristotle, who used triangles in different positions to indicate the different basic elements. The superposed triangles thus represented combinations of those elements. From Aristotle's writings those symbols made their ways into early, pre-Muslim Arab literature.