<P> In Byzantium, the symbol became associated with its patron goddess Artemis / Hecate, and it is used as a representation of Moon goddesses (Selene / Luna or Artemis / Diana) in the Roman era . Ancient depictions of the symbol always show the crescent with horns pointing upward and with the star (often with eight rays) placed inside the crescent . This arrangement is also found on Sassanid coins beginning in the 5th or 6th century CE . </P> <P> The combination is found comparatively rarely in late medieval and early modern heraldry . It rose to prominence with its adoption as the flag and emblem of the Ottoman Empire and some of its administrative divisions (eyalets and vilayets) and later in the 19th - century Westernizing tanzimat (reforms). The Ottoman flag of 1844, with a white ay - yıldız (Turkish for "crescent - star") on a red background, continues to be in use as the flag of the Republic of Turkey, with minor modifications . Other states formerly part of the Ottoman Empire also used the symbol, including Libya (1951--1969 and after 2011), Tunisia (1956) and Algeria (1958). The same symbol was used in other national flags introduced during the 20th century, including the flags of Azerbaijan (1918), Pakistan (1947), Malaysia (1948), Singapore (1959), Mauritania (1959), Uzbekistan (1991), Turkmenistan (1991), Comoros (2001), and Maldives (1965). </P> <P> In the later 20th century, the star and crescent have acquired a popular interpretation as a "symbol of Islam", occasionally embraced by Arab nationalism or Islamism in the 1970s to 1980s, but often rejected as erroneous or unfounded by Muslim commentators in more recent times . </P> <P> Unicode introduced a "star and crescent" character in its Miscellaneous Symbols block, at U + 262A (☪). </P>

What is the meaning of star and moon in islam
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