The Crescent-Moon As The Symbol of Islam

The crescent moon is one of the oldest symbols known to humanity. In fact, it is the symbol of many ancient civilizations. In ancient Egypt, the crescent moon was a symbol of Mother goddess Hathor and Saitic Isis. 

How did the crescent-moon symbol of Saitic Isis in ancient Egypt become the symbol of Islam today? I have a strong conviction that it was Al Ma'mun, the 7th Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, who reduced this ancient symbol to de facto symbol of Islam. 

Al Ma'mun Ibn Harun (the 7th Caliph of Islam) was the founder of Abbasid library in Baghdad (I.e. House of Wisdom), where ancient Egyptian, Greek and Byzantine-Christian texts on philosophy and astronomy were translated into Arabic - many of these translated texts would later go into the formulation of the Quran (see the Mihna). An Avid astronomer, Al Ma'mun built astronomical observatories in Baghdad, and in recognition of his contributions to astronomy, the crater Almanon on the moon was named after him.

That Al Ma'mun was seriously commitment to astronomy is old and well-known in history. What is hidden, however, is how the knowledge of astronomy influenced Al Ma'mun, and the role astronomy played in the codification of the Quran. Let me attempt to bring what is hidden to light with scholarly facts; so, follow me.

To an average Muslim, the word "Quran" means "to recite" or "to read " in Arabic. The only problem with that meaning is that Arabic is not really a language but a script. What many people call Arabic is actually a dialect of middle Aramaic/Syriac. Prior to 7th-8th century CE, "Syriac was the medium of communication and cultural dissemination for Arabs and, to a lesser extent, Persians. Primarily a Christian medium of expression, Syriac had a fundamental cultural and literary influence on the development of Arabic." (Dave Johnson). In other words,  most words in Arabic can best be understood in Aramaic/Syriac. So let's examine the word "Quran" in its original Syriac form. In Syriac, the word "Quran" is written "Qryn" (consonantal Alphabet), meaning "Pentateuchal reader."

What is the "Pentateuch?" Contrary to what we've been generally told that the Pentateuch is the Greek word for theTorah (the first 5 books of Moses); wrong, the Pentateuch is a collection of 5 books on horoscopic astrology, written by Dorotheus in 1st century CE Egypt. The Pentateuch, also known as Carmen Astrologicum, was believed  to have been written originally in Greek, but was  later translated to Palhavi (Persian), Arabic and English respectively - Similar translation was also found in the Indian Sanskrit, called "Yavanajakata." In 7th-9th CE Arabia, the science of astrology that started out in Ancient Egypt for tracking time had become an astrological chart system for reading minds. Arabic authorities started using the interaction between the moon and the sun (crescent moon) to read their client's minds - the general saying then was "the sun receives the moon by exaltation and the moon receives the sun by domicile." I believe Al Ma'mun was one of these Arabic Authorities. Al Ma'mun built 2 astronomical observatories in Baghdad, but he might have gotten his inspiration from Kabba in Mecca. Kabba, in antiquity, was an astronomical observatory post, ignorantly referred to by Muslims as a pagan shrine.

I'm convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Arabic authorities reduced the ancient symbol of the crescent moon to de facto symbol of Islam because of their commitment to astronomy. In fact, the Abrahamic Triad scriptures can be seen as a compedium of astrological charts and messages, disguised in ancient fables!

References

The Hidden Origins of Islam, "Karl-Heinz Ohling," 2009

Walter Williams, "The Historical Origin of Islam," 2003

Lionel Pepper, "The Pentagram Through History," 2008

David Pingree "Carmen Astrologicum book 1," translated 1976.

The "Tukey-Rule."

The question arose as to why most African states lost their indigenous writing scripts. More specifically, why did the Efik, Ibibios and Igbos lose their ancient Nsibidi writing script? To answer this question, one must first understand what I call the "Tukey-rule."

In October 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, an unmarked chopper landed at the staff quarters of the Princeton University Campus in New Jersey.  No sooner had the chopper landed  than Prof. John Tukey was hurriedly ushered into the unmarked chopper, and transported safely into an undisclosed location. Who was John Tukey and why was he rescued when the United States civilization was apparently on the verge of being destroyed by Soviet nuclear bombs.

John W. Tukey was a great American mathematician best known for development of the Cooley-Tukey algorithm, and was credited for coining the word "software." He was purposefully rescued by the government for his superior computational power. In other words, Tukey was a rare genius and had to live. The unwritten rule, which I call the "Tukey-rule," is when your civilization is on the verge of being destroyed by foreign enemies, the only civilians you rescue are the selected few with superior computational power. The rationale behind this unwritten rule is that certain individuals have the intellectual power to jump start a new civilization should the previous one come to an abrupt halt. John Tukey was deemed to be one of those individuals.

If John Tukey was a very valuable person in 1962, traditional priests were just as important to African states in antiquity.  It was the priests who developed the sacred art of writing, and only they knew how to write. Unfortunately, in antiquity, when the African civilizations were being destroyed by foreign invaders, the priests were neither rescued nor protected as John Tukey was in 1962. The priests became easy targets for the foreign mercenaries, and as the priests died so did the civilization and the knowledge of writing they exclusively possessed. Needless to say,  if the knowledge of writing had not been kept secret from the public and exclusive to the priests, the knowledge would not have died with the priests.       

In conclusion, the Efik, Ibibios and Igbos lost their indigenous Nsibidi script because their leaders failed to rescue the priests who were the most valuable individuals in their society when their civilization was being destroyed by foreign enemies. As these priests were exterminated, so was the knowledge of writing they exclusively possessed. Today, the Efik, Ibibios and Igbos now use Latin, a derivative of Phoenician script, to transliterate their phonetic sounds.