Nabonidus Cylinder
The most common symbol in the world of Islam is the crescent. It
is seen atop minarets, mosques, postage stamps and flags of Muslim
countries. Some Muslims will argue that it merely points to the days
of the Ottoman Empire when it was popularized. Critics of Islam will
often make the claim that it ties Islam with a pre-Islamic pagan
deity, a moon god.
Religious symbols usually have some historical significance as in
the symbol of the cross seen on Christian churches which obviously
has something to do with the crucifixion of Christ.
In order to wrap ones mind around the meaning of these symbols it
is often necessary to dig deep into history and archeology. Both the Bible and the Qur’an refer to Abraham as a key
character of their origin. The history of the Qur’an however dates
only to the sixth century after Christ. Its references though claim
to be revelation of the prophet Mohammed, it is clear that his
information came from much earlier religious traditions.
Manuscripts of the Tenach, or Old Testament of the Bible, as well
as the gospels predate Islam by hundreds of years and the
archaeological discoveries validate many of the ancient stories
recorded in those religious texts.
It is claimed that Abraham migrated from Ur in Mesopotamia in the
lower Euphrates River valley, north to Haran, then eventually south
Canaan in what later came to be called Israel by his ancestors.
In Babylon there is record of numerous gods but in Haran there is
a well documented history of the worship a moon-god called Sin. A
contemporary of King Cyrus (who recorded some events on what is
called the Cyrus Cylinder) was a king named Nabonidus. Nabonidus was
the father of the Babylonian king Belshazzar who the bible portrays
as seeing the famous writing on the wall regarding future events.
Now Nabonidus recorded some events himself on some clay cylinders
which were found in 1854 by J.G. Taylor at the ruins of a pyramid
like ziggurat in Ur. Others were found in 1881 by a Syrian
archeologist at Sippar, near the present city of Baghdad. On these
cylinders there is record of Nabonidus doing construction work on the
temples of Sin in Haran as well as Ur. There are many references to
the god Marduk and Sin, the luminary of heaven and the netherworld.
According to the late archaeologist William F. Albright and
translations by A. Leo Oppenheim, this moon-god was glorified by
Nabonidus wherever he went. He traveled for a time south to Tema in
Arabia where he beautified the city and elevated the moon-god Sin.
Much of what Nabonidus built was later destroyed by king Cyrus who
was friendly toward the Jews. But fortunately for the sake of
history these clay cylinders are quite revealing regarding what was
going on while Nabonidus was king of Babylon from 556-539 BC.
References to the crescent moon is recorded in the bible story
about Gideon as well. In the Book of Judges we read that Gideon rose
up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna and took the crescent ornaments
which the kings of Midian wore as well as those on their camels'
necks (Judges 8:21&26). A separate book of the bible, Psalm 83,
further reveals how the Arabs and Assyrians strove to destroy the
nation of the Jews, and Zebah and Zalmunna are again mentioned.
