<Li> <P> A painting from a Padshahnama manuscript (1633) depicts the scene of Aurangzeb facing the maddened War elephant Sudhakar . Sowar's shield is decorated with a star and crescent . </P> </Li> <P> A painting from a Padshahnama manuscript (1633) depicts the scene of Aurangzeb facing the maddened War elephant Sudhakar . Sowar's shield is decorated with a star and crescent . </P> <P> The adoption of star and crescent as the Ottoman state symbol started during the reign of Mustafa III (1757--1774) and its use became well - established during Abdul Hamid I (1774--1789) and Selim III (1789--1807) periods . A buyruldu from 1793 states that the ships in the Ottoman navy have that flag, and various other documents from earlier and later years mention its use . The ultimate source of the emblem is unclear . It is mostly derived from the star - and - crescent symbol used by the city of Constantinople in antiquity, possibly by association with the crescent design (without star) used in Turkish flags since before 1453 . </P> <P> With the Tanzimat reforms in the 19th century, flags were redesigned in the style of the European armies of the day . The flag of the Ottoman Navy was made red, as red was to be the flag of secular institutions and green of religious ones . As the reforms abolished all the various flags (standards) of the Ottoman pashaliks, beyliks and emirates, a single new Ottoman national flag was designed to replace them . The result was the red flag with the white crescent moon and star, which is the precursor to the modern flag of Turkey . A plain red flag was introduced as the civil ensign for all Ottoman subjects . The white crescent with an eight - pointed star on a red field is depicted as the flag of a "Turkish Man of War" in Colton's Delineation of Flags of All Nations (1862). Steenbergen's Vlaggen van alle Natiën of the same year shows a six - pointed star . A plate in Webster's Unabridged of 1882 shows the flag with an eight - pointed star labelled "Turkey, Man of war". The five - pointed star seems to have been present alongside these variants from at least 1857 . </P>

What is the meaning of the islamic crescent and star