Salaams all; Note to Forum. Wikipedia speaks of moons and stars.
Quote. ''Crescent moon and star ;It wasn't until the Ottoman Empire that the crescent moon and star became affiliated with the Muslim world. Legend holds that the founder of the Ottoman Dynasty, Sultan Osman I, had a dream in which the crescent moon stretched from one end of the earth to the other. Taking this as a good omen, he chose to keep the crescent and make it the symbol of his dynasty. There is speculation that the five points on the star represent the Five Pillars of Islam, but this is pure conjecture. The five points were not standard on the Ottoman flags, and it is still not standard on flags used in the Muslim world today.
The Ottomans also used a flag with a crescent. When the first Ottoman Caliph, Selim I assumed power, the religious flag and the national flag were separated. While both flags featured a right facing crescent, the national flag was red and the religious flag green, and, at a later date a five-pointed star was added. This type of flag has become the de facto Islamic flag, and is used, with variations, by multiple Muslim lands such as Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Comoros, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Uzbekistan, and the Western Sahara. As the crescent and star have no religious significance however, some Muslim scholars are against attaching these signs on mosques and minarets or using them to denote Muslim societies''.Unquote.
So far as the Berber star situation it seems clear that their ancient traditions which were not written down but were handed down, thus, a Southern Cross format could have preceded the other stars mentioned above. The non religious aspect is interesting since it refers more to the sighting of the new moon (Crescent Moon to ascertain the Lunar Calender) rather than a religious consideration... though it may also have Talismanic reasoning and is, perhaps, pre Islamic as could be the stars and southern cross insignias..
At any rate, moons and stars preceded the advent of such European sword marks since The Ottoman Empire, sometimes referred to as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a contiguous transcontinental empire founded by Turkish tribes under Osman Bey in north-western Anatolia in 1299. That was about 500 years before European trade blades entered Africa.
The transition of moon and star concepts may have moved in parallel with the conquest of Africa meaning that they would have been well versed in its use quite early since the conquest of North Africa continued under the Umayyad dynasty, taking Algeria by 61H/680AD, and Morocco the following year. Even assuming a few hundred years ...it can be seen that by say 1400 AD the moon cross and star insignia across North Africa would have been well known.
In addition the 5 pointed star, crescent moon and southern cross are insignias common in Morocco today.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
