Middle Ages
The use of the crescent symbol on Muslim flags is first seen by Europe during the Crusades. Flags showing crescents appear in depictions of flags from the 14th century, in the Libro de Conoscimiento and the Catalan Atlas.
In these early examples, the crescent mostly pointed upward. 14th-century Muslim flags with an upward-pointing crescent in a monocolour field included the flags of Gabes, Tlemcen (Tilimsi), Damas and Lucania, Cairo, Mahdia, Tunis and Buda. Evidence of crescent use is also found in the 14th century blue ensign of Nubia/Dongola and yellow ensign of Mamluks of Egypt. Flags with crescents facing the fly are attested from the 17th century.
Before the 14th century, the star next to the crescent does not seem to have been associated with Islam, and appears in Christian iconography.
Read more about this topic: Star And Crescent
Famous quotes related to middle ages:
“What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
Which is most barbarous is the middle age
Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
But when we hover between fool and sage,
And don’t know justly what we would be at—
A period something like a printed page,
Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair
Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“People who are always praising the past
And especially the times of faith as best
Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages
And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.”
—Stevie Smith (1902–1971)