My collection of postage stamps of Iraq

The postal history of Iraq is very old which dates back to the Assyrians as archaeologists have found letters dating back to 23rd Century BC to 608 BC from various parts of Iraq. During the Ottoman Empire, post offices were established in the historic cities of Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk, besides Baghdad. During the British occupation of the area, the postal offices of British India were established in Basra and Baghdad from 1868 till commencement of WW-I. The Indian stamps during the WW-I were overprinted with the letters “I.E.F.”

The first indigenous stamp of Iraq was published in 1923. Interestingly, these stamps were of denomination of Anas and Rupees, the currency of India at that time. Image of King Faisal I of Iraq appeared in 1927 on stamp valued at Rupee 1. Later he appeared on many stamps.

With the independence of Iraq in 1932, the denomination of stamps from Anas and Rupees was changed to Fils and Dinars, the traditional Arab currency of neigbouring Arab states. The first commemorative stamp of Iraq was issued in 1949 on the 75th anniversary of the UPU. This was followed by coronation of King Faisal II, when a set of three stamps was issued in 1953.

My collection of stamps of Iraq is of the period prior to that of Saddam Hussain as shown above.

The slain president Saddam Hussain first appeared on Iraqi stamps in 1976 when he was the vice president of Iraq. He continued to appear on Iraqi stamps till 5th February 2003, when his era came to an end with the NATO invasion of Iraq. The Coalition Provisional Authority administering the affairs of Iraq issued the first stamp after Saddam Hussain on 29th January 2004. And since then new stamps of Iraq have been in use.

Reference and Stamp of King Faisal-I courtesy Wikipedia

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My collection of postage stamps of Saudi Arabia

The present day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was once known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Najed in the early 1920s. Hejaz was under the greater Ottoman Empire and was under the direst control of the Turks since 1845. The Turks laid a railway system between the city of Medina and Damascus known as the Hejaz Railway and issued a number of railway stamps. The Turks also opened post offices in the cities of Abha, El Ula, Jeddah, Mecca, Taif, Tabouk, Yanbo and many other places. Before the Turks, an Egyptian post office functioned at the port city of Jeddah between 1865-1881.

The first stamp of Hejaz was issued in October 1916. The stamps continued till 1925, when Najed took control of the Kingdom of Hejaz. And from then on, stamps were issued under the Kingdom of Najed. On 8 January 1926, Abdul Aziz Ibn-e-Saud, the king of Nejd was crowned as the King of Hejaz in the Grand Mosque of Mecca. He also assumed the title of the King of Nejd. The first stamp of the new kingdom was issued in February 1926.

However, upon renaming of the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd as Kingdom of Suaida Arabia in 1930s, the first stamp bearing the description “Saudi Arabia” was issued on 1 January 1934.

The four stamps after the first stamp in the top left column from my stamp album above were issued in the 1930s. The first stamp (aeroplane in blue) was issued in 1949 as a part of a set of two stamps (the other stamp was in red colour).

The remaining stamps were generally issued in the 1960s.

Related reading:

Stamps and history of Hijaz

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History and postage stamps of the United Arab Republic (UAR)

Many would not know now that there once existed a union between the Egypt and Syria known as the United Arab Republic for a brief period between 1958 to 1961. Syria quit the UAR in 1961, while Egypt continued to be officially part of UAR until 1971, when the union finally ceased to exist.

The UAR adopted a flag based on the Arab Liberation Flag of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but with two stars to represent the two parts. This continues to be the flag of Syria. In 1963, Iraq adopted a flag that was similar but with three stars, representing the hope that Iraq would join the UAR. The current flags of Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen are also based on Arab Liberation Flag of horizontal red, white, and black bands.

The need to form a union between Egypt and Syria stemmed from the vulnerabilities of the communist uprising in Syria and Syria sought help from Egypt to curb the communist rise in the country and offered to form a union with Syria. Although the then Egyptian president Gemal Abdul Nasser resisted formation of such a union, Nasser opted for a total merger in early 1958. Nasser became UAR’s first president (and the last too as the union died its own death after three years).

The union never ran smoothly for many reasons, and Nasser was unable to run it efficiently and carry the Syrians along with him. On September 28^th 1961, a group of military officers staged a coup and announced Syria’s independence from the UAR. Although Nasser did not vocally objected to the Syrian exodus from the union, he continued to talk of unity among Arab countries till UAR finally came to its logical abolishment in 1971 and Egypt became Arab Republic of Egypt.

From 1958 till 1971, the UAR stamps were used by both Syria and Egypt (though Syria reverted to Syrian stamps in 1961 after it quit the union). The above stamps of UAR from my collection are from this period.

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Stamps of Jordan

This page from my stamp album shows some of the rare stamps of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan issued in the in 1950s.

Two stamps at the bottom left corner of the page is in fact is part of the set of eight stamps bearing the photo of Temple of Artemis, Jerash. The set was issued on 19th October 1954.

The stamp bearing the portrait of King Hussein on the top left corner was issued on 14th July 1954. The two stamps under the first stamp are part of the definitive stamps of o a set of 32 which were issued on 6 June 1959.

The four stamps in the second column from the left bearing the Al Aqsa Mosque / Dome of Rock, which were issued on 26th March 1954.

The only stamp in the third column from the left bears the Al Aqsa Mosque and is part of a set of four stamps issued on 19th October 1954. The stamp adjacent to it shows Treasury of Petra issued on 2nd September 1954 and is a part of set of three stamps.

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