ZOMG Dynastic Coat of Arms are still hideous :(

[tonkatoy5]

I personally like this style

Hopefully paradox takes not and gets a little more flamboyant.

 

[Hardradi]

Actually, it was a Roman symbol before the Turks took Constantinople and decided they liked it. The (originally) 7 pointed star in the crescent moon is the symbol of the Holy Virgin Mary. The crescent moon itself a much older Roman symbol adopted after they won a battle somewhere in the Balkans under a crescent moon.

The Turks were using the crescent moon as a symbol long before they took Constantinople. Both the Mongols and Turks used it to represent Tengri. Nowadays it's as synonymous with Islam as a Cross is with Christianity, of course this isnt "official" how could it be made official unless Mohammad rose from the grave to make it so.

Byzantine Greek coins from the BC's had the crescent symbol on them and a star.

 

[WankoStankins]

Hi I am the paradox intern who made these new coats of arms.

How beautiful. Greenlighted.

 

[Cèsar de Quart]

Why do people say things like this when a quick Google search could easily correct them.

Yes, I was too carried away. There are crescents in early and Medieval muslim iconography, but it was not a symbol of Islam as it is regarded nowadays, and it certainly had not the difusion Paradox seems to imply with their set of random Muslim CoAs.

Also, it was used in the Middle East because of tradition, being it as it was a powerful symbol of old Semitic and Mesopotamian gods in the Orient, like Ishtar or Venus. They lost their original meaning but were still used because they had always been there.

 

[Solo_Adhémar]

The cosmic pattern (crescent and star) is a common symbol in almost every single religion in the world at some point. Simple as that. Medieval christian rulers were crowned in a mantle of crescent and stars for example (so much for crosses against crescents in hollywood crusades), and what we think of a specific emblem of islam from our modern point of view was only really a common symbol in both religions at that time. As an emblem, specifically, it is much more common in the christian world before 1300 as it is in the islamic world in which it was still strongly associated with pre-islamic beliefs and for example, the cult of Baal (think of the destruction of the idols as opposed to christian syncretism). The turks, are mostly responsible for introducing the crescent as an emblem, probably as simply as an evolution of the tamgas, before it gets assimilated with the cosmic pattern again, closing that circle.

Most islamic banners (that weren't emblems per se) before that point were just plain coloured flags, half of them red. Some geometric patterns were commons though, like the eight pointed star (a symbol that we associate with judaism today and is not a cosmic symbol in that case), plain squares (stylized Kaba), plain circles (bezants, money is always a symbol of authority) or stylized zulifqars. That's what a good set of emblems for the islamic world would look like, a mix of all those, giving a much smaller role to crescents.

As for Constantinople specifically I don't think there's any evidence of anything other than crescent and stars (in combination or not) being very common in all greek heraldry. It's just that they used modern (sometimes even late XXth century I mean) civic heraldry as a guideline for just about anything. That's how some town councillor making up an emblem to his own personnal taste can end up being the main reason behind using an emblem in a game focusing on the medieval era.

 

[gnark1ll]

The star and crescent symbol was originally used as the flag of Constantinople. According to legend in 339 BC the city of Byzantium, (later known as Constantinople and then Istanbul), won a decisive battle under a brilliant waxing moon which they attributed to their patron Goddess Artemis (Diana in Roman mythology) whose symbol was the crescent moon. In honor of Artemis the citizens adopted the crescent moon as their symbol. When the city became the Christian Roman Constantinople in 330 AD, Constantine also added the Virgin Mary's star on the flag.

All of us sons of Portsmouth know this tale, as our fair city also shares the same symbol due to trading links with Byzantines and the region (Cyprus etc) going back centuries.

 

[Solo_Adhémar]

A good part of the work of medieval historians specialized in iconography or emblems is destroying those legends one by one.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

A good part of the work of medieval historians specialized in iconography or emblems is destroying those legends one by one.

I'm not sure why you think historians 'destroying' legends and folklore is a good thing.

 

[Solo_Adhémar]

I think you perfectly know what I meant. Nobody goes out there burning books in an autodafé.

Now if you think it's better to let people believe that heraldry existed in the fourth century and that the greater "coat of arms" of Jesus Christ, Julius Caesar or Charlemagne are the absolute undebatable truth, then it's another story.