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The flag of the Ottoman Empire (and later that of Turkey) is called Ay Yıldız which means moon star. Ottoman Empire used many flags through out times. Flags were changed based on the Sultan's title during an event. According to the Republic of Turkey's Presidential Insignia law, the Ottoman Flag was a five point star within the outer circle of the moon. Other flags represented can be reached through Presidential Insignia.
Flags From Ghazi to Emperor (1299-1453)
The Ottomans originally had two "state" flags, one for the imperial domains of the House of Osman, the other for the Sultanate of Rum, which the Osmans ruled.
The flag of the Empire contained a cross with a Kayi clan tamgha, a bow, in each corner. This may seem an odd choice for a Moslem ruler, but at the time he was the declared defender of the Orthadox Christians of his realm, who were actually more worried about the Latins than the Moslems. This flag is actually very similar to the Byzantine flag, save for one difference: The mirrored cyrillic ß's on the Byzantine flag are replaced with Osman tamghas.
While it is often stated that red was chosen as the colour of the Sultanate because it is much favored by Turks. The original Seljuk Sultans of Rum billed themselves as the Moslem successors to the Roman Empire, and their Ottoman successors continued this idea. The popular "Turkish" colour chosen by the various Ghazi states with no Roman pretentions was actually blue, and they liked to add the Seal of Suleyman to their flags.
Flags of the Sublime Porte (1453-1789)
The conquest of Constantinople vastly altered the Ottoman iconography. The Ottomans resurrected an ancient pagan icon of Byzantium (the city Constantinople was built on), the goddess Diana's crescent moon, and adopted it as their own. The crescent was quite popular in Persia, which was the origin of most of the non-Roman Ottoman culture at that point, remarkably similar to the Osman tamgha, and an ancient symbol of the city. It was perfect, and went from obscurity to THE symbol of the Ottoman Empire.
The original flag changed very little, the gold crescent merely makes its appearance for the first time. By the 18th century this began to be flown as a rectangular as opposed to triangular flag, but remained essentially unchanged. The gold is actual gold-woven silk, and in lieu of this white cloth as opposed to yellow-dyed cloth was used, as not everyone can afford such luxury.
With the conquest of Syria and Egypt, a new Imperial flag was needed. The Sultan was no longer a Roman successor in a mostly
Christian land, but the Sultan of Egypt and Caliph of Islam. So the Byzantine cross was removed, and a disc of the colour green, the colour of Islam, was placed upon the imperial flag. The many-crescents motif was maintained, but was reduced to three upon the disc, and now represented the three titles and three continents that the house of Osman ruled over: Egypt in Africa, the Caliphate in Asia, and Rum in Europe.
With control of Constantinople and the Bosphorus came new commercial opportunities and new threats from Venice and Genoa, who feared for their interests and colonies in the Aegean and Black Sea. The Ottomans felt the need for a strong navy and merchant marine, and instituted a number of reforms. These included naval identifiers, including command, and a set of merchant flags based on religion, each of which was treated differently by the legal system. The naval system also had flags for individual ships and commanders, but those could not be considered to be "Ottoman" flags.
Jews and Christians of the empire subjected to one more tax. However as "Romans", the Orthadox Christians had certain rights and privaledges that the Catholics did not, and for religious reasons Jews were the only people who could engage in certain financial activities.
The Catholics had the worst deal, since they were taxed as heavily as the other non-moslems, without any of the benefits or privaledges. This wasn't that much of a source of discontent however, as most of the mercantilistic Catholic subjects of the Ottoman Empire lived under their own administration in the Republic of Ragusa. Only a few struggling Albanian merchants from Dürres or (later on) Croatians from Split fell under this category.
Reform and Decline (1789-1923)
The flag of the Ottoman navy was made red as red was to be the flag of secular institutions and green of religious ones, following the New Order reforms. All religious institutions were "spun-off" and while the Emperor remained Caliph and retained religious roles, the Sultanate secularized itself. The Navy went through radical modernization reforms, but nothing compared to the army.
The Army was completely restructured. The Jannissaries were disbanded and many of them were killed as they resisted modernization. This came of course with a new flag design, without the colour, religious overtones, and excess of the Janissaries.
Furthering the New Order reforms, the Empire was centralized and all the various sub-Sultanates, Pashaliks, Beyliks and Emirates were abolished, including the Sultanate of Rum. And so a new flag was designed to replace both the Sultanate of Rum and Ottoman Empire flags. The result is the flag we know as the modern Turkish flag (see top).
Secularization made the religions equal under law, doing away with the complex heirarchy of religions in relation to taxation and mercantile persuits, so a plain red flag was made the civil flag for all Ottoman subjects.
Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire and rise of the Turkish Republic, the flag remained the same.
Myths
Because the flag has a complex origin, many myths have been created over the centuries to explain the significance of the flag, and for nationalistic reasons, to take ethnic posession of the symbols. One is that the color red is a prominent color in Turkish history. There is a "Turkish" colour, but it is blue. Blue was the national colour of the Gok Turks, the Seljuks, and all the Beyliks without a claim to Roman succession. Red is a ROMAN colour. The crescent and star are often explained to be ancient Turkish symbols. They are ancient symbols, yes, but they are Persian and Greek ones, of their ancient and pagan gods (they both worshipped Diana, patron goddess of Byzantium). Ancient Turkish symbols are the tamghas, which the Ottomans did their best to discard. while it is now used as an Islamic symbol, this is only because of the fact that the Turks adopted the ancient Greek symbol and then their infulence over the middle east meant that it came to be a symbol for Islam. There are also several myths regarding the adaptation is that the Turks had won a great victory with heavy losses in the Battle of Manzikert against the Byzantines in the year 1071, which led them to move into Anatolia. The story goes that after the battle when the Sultan (The Khan at the time) walked through the battle field, there was a pool of blood formed between a group of Turkish soldiers, with the crescent moon and the star reflecting upon it. The Sultan then alledgedly adopts this reflection as the flag of Turks, however this view is one more of a romantic myth than any factual basis.
Personal Standard of the Sultan
The imperial banners displayed the sultan's tughra, often on a pink or bright red background. The religious colour of Islam is green, and many Ottoman flags were dark green. Sometimes it was just a plain green flag, sometimes the moon and star were painted in white and sometimes in yellow. Many royal banners picture the legendary Zulfikar sword. As of 1862 the flag of the sultan was green with seven thin, red, horizontal lines.
Flag Poles
The flagpoles were often decorated by a cresent, a wolf head, a horse tail or a Qur'an box. In addition, banners were always accompanied by a number of smaller flags, pennants, icons and various other items with symbolic meaning (for example, the Janissaries used to parade with their cauldrons).
References
There are many references to the Ottoman Flag originally being simply a crescent on a green field, and this being changed in 1793 when Sultan Selim III officially changed the background to red, however this assumes there was merely a single flag for the Ottoman Empire.
The star upon the flag is a very late addition, and appeared first upon naval flags, only in 1844 making its way on to the state flag. Some say the star symbol dates back to the time of Constantine and it was considered a symbol of Mary in his time, but rather it was an important part of the Turkish folklore, just like the crescent. The design of the three crescents on a green disc remained the flag of the empire right up until 1844, and this can be considered the "state" flag of the Ottoman Empire. Later sources have the disc as an oval rather than a circle, and the three crescents side by side rather in a triangular formation.
There are several legends associated with the symbols of the flag. The two most popular include a reflection of the moon occulting a star, appearing in pools of blood after the battle of Kosovo in 1448, and another refers to a dream of Osman I in which a crescent and star appeared from his chest and expanded over the entire world. None of these legends are actually true however, as the crescent began as the pre-Christian symbol for Byzantium. Byzantium's patron deity, Diana, was represented iconographically with a crescent moon. This was a convenient symbol for the Ottomans to adopt as it was very similar to the tamgha of the house of Osman, a stylized bow. Thus the Ottomans were able to technically "simplify" their Tamgha while simultaneously co-opting an ancient Greek symbol of Constantinople, to further the legitimacy of their rule over the city. Previously to the conquest of Constantinople crescent-shaped objects do proliferate through Ottoman iconography, though they all included stylized arrows. This is because a bow with an arrow or two arrows is the tamgha of the Kayi branch of the Oghuz Turks, the tribe from which Osman is descended.