KUTSALIN GRAFİK DİLİ: HAÇ, HİLAL VE DAVUT YILDIZI'NIN İKONOGRAFİK KÖKENLERİ ÜZERİNE GÖRSEL İLETİŞİM ODAKLI BİR İNCELEME
THE GRAPHIC LANGUAGE OF THE SACRED: A VISUAL COMMUNICATION STUDY ON THE ICONOGRAPHIC ORIGINS OF THE CROSS, THE CRESCENT AND THE STAR OF DAVID

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the iconographic origins of the cross, the crescent and the Star of David — the primary visual symbols of the three Abrahamic religions — from a visual communication perspective. The research employs a qualitative analytical framework combining Panofsky's three-level iconographiciconological model with Peirce's classification of signs (icon-index-symbol). The findings reveal that none of the three symbols was designed during the founding period of its religion; rather, each was appropriated from pre-religious or non-religious visual repertoires and converted into a conventional religious sign through historical processes. The cross was represented only indirectly in early Christianity through the staurogram and the Chi-Rho monogram, becoming a symbol of triumph from the fourth century onwards. The crescent evolved from origins reaching back to Mesopotamian lunar cults, Byzantine coinage and the pre-Islamic coins of the Turkic (Kokturk) Qaghanate — on semantic ground prepared by Islam's lunar liturgical calendar — into the international sign of Islam through Ottoman state symbolism and the institutionalisation of the Red Crescent. The hexagram, an intercultural talismanic motif throughout the Middle Ages, became the emblem of Jewish identity in the nineteenth century and of the State of Israel in the twentieth. The study proposes a model of appropriation, codification, institutionalisation and naturalisation to explain the shared trajectory of the three symbols, arguing that with their geometric simplicity, scalability and high recognisability they exemplified the principles of modern logo design centuries in advance and may be counted among the longestlived visual identity systems in history.

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