The Imperial Order of the Crescent (Ottoman Turkish - Hilal Nishani) was a chivalric order of the Ottoman Empire. It was instituted in 1799 by Sultan Selim III when he wished to reward Horatio Nelson, an Anglican Christian, for his victory at the Battle of the Nile. All the existing Ottoman orders could not be awarded to non-Muslims, and so Selim specially created the Order of the Crescent as a one-off for Nelson, making him its first Knight and ...
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The Imperial Order of the Crescent (Ottoman Turkish - Hilal Nishani) was a chivalric order of the Ottoman Empire. It was instituted in 1799 by Sultan Selim III when he wished to reward Horatio Nelson, an Anglican Christian, for his victory at the Battle of the Nile. All the existing Ottoman orders could not be awarded to non-Muslims, and so Selim specially created the Order of the Crescent as a one-off for Nelson, making him its first Knight and sending him the insignia in August 1799. (He also rewarded Nelson with the separate award of the chelengk.) The Order was then extended to reward further the British military success on land and sea against Napoleon's forces in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in 1801.
Nelson was proud of his award - he appended it to his name in the Articles of Capitulation with Denmark after the Battle of Copenhagen on 9 April 1801 (news of which appending so pleased the Sultan that he added a ribbon and gold medal to Nelson's star). However, the British...
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