The crescent moon is one of the oldest symbols in flag design, and it’s loosely, though not exclusively, tied to Islam. Its use actually predates Islam by centuries, showing up in Byzantine and Ottoman imagery long before it became shorthand for Muslim-majority nations. Today it appears across a wide stretch of the world, from North Africa through the Middle East and Central Asia into Southeast Asia, almost always paired with a star, though the exact shape, size, and placement of both changes from flag to flag.
Below, every national flag that carries a crescent, linked through to the story behind it.
Crescent and star
Turkey · Pakistan · Tunisia · Algeria · Libya · Mauritania · Malaysia · Singapore · Azerbaijan · Comoros · Turkmenistan · Uzbekistan
Crescent alone
Maldives