Stamp Story No. 58 Eastern Significance Of The Crescent Moon

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 8

Stamp Story No. 58 Eastern Significance Of The Crescent Moon

(By

KEN ANTHONY]

r T , HIS Turkish stamp of 1865 x shows the crescent moon, for centuries the symbol not only of Turkey—both as Empire and Republic—but also of the whole Moslem world, too.

Yet the history of this emblem goes back into much earlier times tha i Islam itself. Legend has it that when Philip of Macedon—father of Alexander the Great—was besieging the ancient city of Byzantium, the modem Istanbul, his forces attempted to undermine the city walls at night But the crescent moon shone so brightly that they were discovered. The attack was repulsed, and the city saved.

That was in 339 B.C. The crescent moon became the emblem of Byzantium through the varied fortunes of the next 17 centuries.

Under the great Roman emperor Constantine, the city was rebuilt and in 324 A. D. was renamed Constantinople. It then became the centre of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire. Although Rome's Easters Empire lasted much longer

than the Western Byzantine power crumbled in mediaeval times before the advance of the Ottoman Turks. Constantinople fell in 1453—and with Byzantine territory the Turks took over the crescent moon From the 1860’s, the motif continued to be used on Turkish stamps for many years and still appears on some modern issues Further east, another Moslem country has adopted the emblem in its stamp designs. When Pakis. tan became independent in 1947, it had to use overprinted Indian stamps for the first year, but the famous crescent moon was strongly featured on the first distinctive issues of 1948.

Unfortunately, after the stamps had been issued, it was discovered that a waning moon had been depicted

Such an ill-omen for a new country could not be tolerated for tong; the stamps were re-designed and the moon turned the other way round. Since 1949, Pakistan’s moon has duly waxed instead of waned.—(Central Press Features, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.)