Crescent

Sin was tlie Assyrian naiiu- for the moon, ami Sinai tinMount, the birtli-plaee of Osiris, of Dionysos, Bacchus and several other {rods. Aceordinpr to Rawlinson, the moon was held in liiprlier esteem than the sun at Babylon, Ixcause darkness pr< ct (hd light. The crescent was. therefore, a sacred symbol with almost every nation, before it became the standard of the Turks. Says the author of Egyptian Bdi^f, "The crescent is not es.sentially a Maliomctan ensign. On the contrary, it was a christian one, derived throu«ijli Asia from the Babylonian Astarte, Queen of Heaven, or from the E<?yptian Isis .... wliose t-mblem was the crescent. Tiie Greek Cliristian Empire of Constantinoj>le held it as their palladium. Ui)on tiie conquest of the Turks, the Mahometan Sultan adopted it for the .symbol of his i)ower. Since that time the crt scrnt has been made to oppo.se tiie idea of the cross."