Thursday, January 11, 2007

Crusader Coins

13th century silver coins of the Crusaders were copies of Islamic coins that feature a Solomon’s seal. The coins were struck at Tripoli, Lebanon from 1220 to 1240 C.E., in order to simplify trade with neighboring Muslim kingdoms

Exclusive Pure Singleness

I found a deep insight about the meaning of the Star of David in different cultures in James B. Klee's article. Here's an excerpt:
In India it is seen as a six-pointed mandala, inclusive of six aspects at least. In the Indian context one senses the inclusiveness of the symbol. Yet its more recent use is to merely label one group, either as a mark on a “foreign” group to be excluded, or even within the group to exclude others. Indeed the star often is a symbol of singleness in the arithmetic sense - be it one of the 13 original colonies, or one of the 50 states, or the lone star state of Texas. In each Western case, the symbol is used to express exclusive pure singleness. Seldom is the sense of the multiple aspects of the figure developed.