journal of the ottoman & near east philatelic society

Ú THE LEVANT Ú Journal of the Ottoman & Near East Philatelic Society

APS Affiliate 247 May 2015 Volume 8 number 2President: Robert Stuchell Editor: Richard Rose

C O N T E N T S

Kiuwait Covers from Baghdad-Haifa Over land Mail Service. Rainer Fuchs ......... 22Question & Answer Round-Up .............. 24The Fez is Decreed Away.

Jeremy Seal ................................. 28Book Review: Charity in Islamic Societies

by Amy Singer ........................ 29Closed Albums / Member Notices ........ 32ONEPS Society page ............................ 341909 Printed Matter Returned from Egypt.

Rida Bazzi .................................... 35

From the President ....... The annual meeting of ONEPS will be atBalpex 2015 and the link below will takeyou to the prospectus and information aboutthe event.http://www.balpex.org/exhibits.html Balpex will be held on Friday, Saturdayand Sunday of Labor Day Weekend 4, 5, and 6 September, 2015 at the Hunt ValleyInn (Wyndham Affiliate) 245 Shawan Road,Hunt Valley, Maryland , Exit 20E off I-83,north of I-695. If you are consideringoffering an exhibit at Balpex, contact meright away.

“ Seraskerat “

World Stamp Show takes place May28-June 4, 2016 at the Javits Center in New YorkCity. Full show information is online at www.ny2016.org. I am co-ordinating plans forour Society’s presence at this Show so if you

plan to attend or exhibit, please contact me.

Bob Stuchell [email protected]

http://www.balpex.org/exhibits.html

http://www.ny2016.org.

http://www.ny2016.org.

Overland Mail Baghdad-Haifa Mail from Kuwait The attempt of a Census and Postage Rate Table Rainer Fuchs (AIJP,FRPSL) The recent results of the Auction of Alan Parsons Indian Post offices in the Middle East collection where 3 Overland Mail covers from Kuwait were offered gave me the incentive to prepare a census of known covers from Kuwait, sent thru the Overland Mail. I believe this is the first such census so the listing may be incomplete (as usual with initial listings) and I would appreciate if fellow collectors inform me if they are aware of additional covers. Based on that census I try to lay out the postage rates and surcharges which are still a bit n the dark, despite several collectors wrote about them. However, as far as I know, no first hand proofs in regard to official announcements from Kuwait Post are known. If other collectors know about such official announcements from Kuwait Post, I would appreciate to receive a copy. Currently, the postage rates /surcharges i am aware of are as follows:

Date Postage * From Until 20 Grams Registration Overland Mail Surcharge 1924 3 Annas 3 Annas 3 Annas

1936 3 Annas 3 Annas 1 ½ Annas

* Note: Rate for additional weight is not considered as no covers are known. Nevertheless, it would be good to know if the weight steps were 20 grams or 1 ounce. I would appreciate if some collectors with more knowledge on Kuwait rates than myself fill the gaps. Covers are listed chronologically. Rate is figured thus: Postage + Registration + Overland Mail Surcharge

Index Image Date: Rate

Reference / Comments

1 05 Sep. 1924 9 Annas, Registered(3 + 3 + 3 Annas)

Gärtner Auction 09‐2012, Lot 2253Cover sent to Sweden. Same sender and address as cover No. 5

2 25 Nov. 1924 9 Annas, Registered(3 + 3 + 3 Annas)

No image of front of the cover in my archive! Who can provide one?





3

1924? 6 Annas (3 + 3 Annas)

Spink Auction, 10 Nov. 2014, Lot 2133, The Alan Parsons Collection. Imprinted Envelope IE14. Date not clear to me. Collins lists a similar envelope dated 1931, however, no image seen. That cover was illustrated in”The Overland Desert Mail” by Major T.L.C. Tomkins, The Philatelist (May 1949). Cover sent to England

4

28 Dec. 1925 9 Annas, Registered (3 + 3 + 3 Annas)

Cover sent to Germany

5

04 Feb 1926 9 Annas, Registered (3 + 3 + 3 Annas)

Gärtner Auction 09-2012, Lot 2254 Cover sent to Sweden. Same sender and address as cover No. 1

6

19 Apr 1927 6 Anna (3 + 3 Annas)

Cover sent to England. Ebay, 11 Sep. 2008, item 350095406786

7

19 Jly 1928 6 Anna (3 + 3 Annas)

Spink Auction, 10 Nov. 2014, Lot 2134, The Alan Parsons Collection. Cover sent to England Same sender and address as No. 8

8

8 Dec 1928 6 Anna (3 + 3 Annas)

Cover sent to England Same sender and address as No. 7



9

15 Nov 1931 6 Anna (3 + 3 Annas)

Spink Auction, 10 Nov. 2014, Lot 2135, The Alan Parsons Collection.

10

5 Oct 1933 6 Anna (3 + 3 Annas)

Ebay, 3 Feb. 2013, item 271144472465. Cover sent to England. With British Post Census Marking

11

12 Dec 1936 5 Annas, why? Maybe no 1 ½ Anna stamp on hand so overfranked by ½ Anna?

Ebay, 3 Feb. 2013, item 251219137640. Cover sent to England

While the census contains considerable more items than included by Collins in his Monograph, these covers are still very rare and very much thought after by Kuwait (and Overland Mail) collectors. However, I am sure more items must exist, sitting in known or unknown collections. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q & A Round-Up Carl Catherman < [email protected] >

Q. 1. From the May 2014 issue, p. 95 This is a common Ottoman 2 para newspaper stamp from 1884. Most of these stamps were applied to blank sheets which were then sent through the printing press. Hence, most newspaper stamps bear a portion of whatever was being printed, a newspaper, advertisement, notice, even menues. This example appears to be unused, and bears instead a letter design, the top portion of which clearly reads der seadet (in Turkish, or dar as-sa’adah in Arabic), which translated as House of Bliss, the formal designation of Constantinople, or Istanbul. The remaining text lies largely off the stamps. Was this stamp from a sheet of stamps, each overprinted with a hand-

stamp of this design? What would have been the purpose --- to designate these

stamps for use only in Istanbul, or to shift a newspaper stamp to some other fiscal use? Not seen inMcDonald or Süleymaniye. Color image on back cover

Q. 2. From the Jan. 2011 issue, p.12 and p. 15This label has many clues for one who can decipher the elegant script. In the

center circle are the letters §� (shekel, the coin?). If the letters directly

beneath the � in the circular band mark the beginning of the text, then thetext – reading clockwise – may be something like –

\� µÄ�¯\~ »À^zn ²\§yÇ »³\§½¬¯ »Ï´Ä¯ dÄ�¯. Color image on back cover

Q. 3. A new item from Gordon Brooks of Montreal. This imperforate stamp is printed on Crown Agents paper with Royal Cipherwatermark of King George V. The E.E.F. (Egyptian Expeditionary Force)text is similar to the OPDA revenue stamps of Palestine (Bale 42, DorfmanR63). The difference is that the Palestine revenue stamps indicate the OttomanPublic Debt Administration (OPDA) in English, while this stamp bears theFrench version, Administration du Dette Publique Ottomane (ADPO). TheFrench occupation of regime in Syria overprinted several Ottoman revenuestamps with ADPO, but nothing like this appears in the revenue catalogs forPalestine (Bale, Dorfman), Jordan (Ross), or Syria (Duston). I thought I hada reference to this issue in Barefoot but cannot now find it. I bought a numberof these, all NH, when I acquired a large portion of the Forbin stock inMontreal.

Two from Martin Doring, From the Sept. 2012 issue, p, 93Q. 4. A controversial series of overprints purportingto be proofs or trials of an overprint for the Macedoniatour of Sultan Mehmet V in 1911. Are they validessays? Color images on back cover

. A

< M. Doring image. Image from Cherrystone auction of

1 7-18 March 2015, Lot 1339. ;

27The Levant. Journal of the Ottoman & Near East Philatelic Society. Vol. VIII, No. 2, May 2015

A. These overprints were declared to be phantasies by Billig (Handbuch der Fälschungen, lieferungNo. 38 = Türkei II. 1937), at illustration no. 64. They are not listed in Passer or Pulhan or Isfila.Andreas Birken revisited the question in “Essais zur Sultanreise” in Türkei-Spiegel (4:2005) pp. 12-14. He suggested that Suat Bey, the Director of the Postal System (per Passer) at the time, could haveconsidered several essays, such as these. The only real hint of validity might be the date, which isPRQV / 1327( = 1911) in the Ottoman fiscal calendar, and this calendar was the one used for postalcancellations and most ministerial business, and so the logical one to use. The decision to use thedate of PRQX / 1329 from the hijra or religious calendar (which also = 1911) was for the purposeof emphasizing the Sultan’s role as caliph of Islam for this trip, which may have been a subsequentidea. Nonetheless, printing a value in French and not Turkish, and on stamps not likely to be usedfor the ultimate series, renders them suspicious. They continue to appear for sale by the mostreputable auction houses, and also on eBay. Was there one source for this phantasy, and how many different stamps were overprinted?

Q. 5. The 1876 Istanbul water well tickets or fee stamps functioned in the usual way, one design,most with the value of 20 paras, but printed on seven different colored papers, one for each day ofthe week, and each set printed with the name of one of several public wells. The basic design (on theleft) was introduced in 1876, and later was altered only with the addition of a larger wooden barrelin the center, instead of the corners. A. Martin Doring first brought three examples with this handstamp (on the right) to my attention.

The handstamp is a negative ¦z°§ (gümrük), a word which means Customs, as in the office forcollecting import and export fees. This variety does not appear in the McDonald catalog, Revenuesof the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey (2nd ed. 1998. Coupeville, Washington) butSülemaniye illustrates a few, in his catalog Revenue Stamps of the Ottoman Empire and the EarlyPeriod of the Turkish Republic (Ankara 2012), for five of the ten or eleven wells for which stampswere issued (pp. 269-71).The question now as then is, what has the Customs Department to do with public well fees? Backin 2012 I surmised that customs officials were in charge of collecting the well tax and this mark isa cancellation, with all that implies. The rarity of the mark might be explained that after beingcanceled, the stamps had no value and were simply disposed of by the purchaser. Also, the purposeof cancelling is to prevent the stamp from being reused. Does anyone have further information, orguesses?

28 The Levant. Journal of the Ottoman & Near East Philatelic Society. Vol. VIII, No. 2, May 2015

Q. 6. This red 20 para stamp is Turkey Scott 112, but with an unusualoverprint, or perhaps two — a crescent moon, and a crude peaked design.Does anyone recognize these overprints ? Color image on back cover

Q. 7. A set of Ottoman revenue stamps with these values (from left to right):20 paras, 5, 10, 20, and 50 piastres. The text in the upper oval reads devlataliye othmanye Exalted Ottoman State. The lower oval contains whatappears to be: �½�s¯ »À³\c~ y\�¬^ bulghâr satâniye makhsûs. The violetcancels are fiscal.

A. These are listed in McDonald under Ottoman Consulates in Bulgaria, numbers 89-95. The lowertitle seems to read Bulgar sathina mahsusdur which could mean "valid throughout Bulgaria". If thisis the case, then like other Ottoman consular stamp series, the full set include a stamp of zero value,which is priced the same as the 50 piaster. Yavuz Corapcioglu Color image on back cover

Q. 8. From David Wilcox Carl, a couple of years ago you were generous enough to help me identifya Turkish revenue stamp which I could not find in the Scott catalogue. I hopeI’m not imposing by asking whether or not you or someone you know mightbe able to assist me with this group of three, please.They seem to be from the Russian Offices In The Turkish empire. Whatstumps me is the additional surcharge on each stamp. For example, the 4para has an additional surcharge of 5 piastres, the 20 para a surcharge of 3piastres, and the 2 piastres one of 5 piastres. I’ve only sent photos of threeof them but I have several examples of each withvarious additional surcharges. Color image onback cover

A. I think the surcharges are bogus. Has anyone else seen this type of surcharge ?


The Fez is Decreed Away Jeremy Seal

The autumn of 1925 saw the new Turkish government make another step in theWesternization of the nation. It was announced that the fez would become illegal for all citizens,barring some branches of the clergy, on 25 November. That summer, Sir Telford Waugh had beenon leave in England. He would go on to complete forty-four years of distinguished service in thedragomanate (interpreter’s office) accompanying the ambassador and other senior British diplomatson official visits around the republic. Sir Telford thought he knew Istanbul as well as anybody, andhe always looked forward to his return to the city and the cool breezes among the plane trees asautumn blew its gentle way up the Bosphorus. But as the time for his return drew near, a chancescrap of information led him to suppose that something momentous had happened in his absence;a hat manufacturer in London mentioned in passing that he had recently received an unprecedentedinquiry from Istanbul. The inquirer apparently wanted hats, thirty thousand of them, and Turkey didnot often order hats.

In fact, hat demand in Constantinople was reaching fever pitch by late October, when thepressure on fezzes was stepped up. Although not yet officially illegal, night watchmen were givenorders to go from house to house to seek out all surviving fezzes. Just as fez wearers had beforeknocked the homburgs off the heads of infidels, so republicans now knocked the fezzes off the headsof fez wearers.

The morning of 25 November broke strangely silent. Near the Dolmabahçe Palace, themuezzin trudged up the steps to appear on the balcony of his minaret with a 1900-model bowlerpulled down hard over his ears. With an apocalyptic sense of foreboding, he started to sing,wondering how long his incensed God would allow him to continue. After a few uneasy notes, he

discovered to his surprise that he was still alive, but in a worldthat had become unrecognizable..

In the weeks that followed, Western hats wereimported into Turkey by the million. They came by ship andby train – bowlers and homburgs, panamas and flatcaps, butthey did not arrive in sufficient numbers to meet the demand. In Ankara, the hat stores were continually sold out. Such wasthe shortage in Istanbul that the city prefect, Emin Bey, setrestrictions on the profit that could legally be made on hats,15% on the standard ones and 25% on more fancy models.On his return, Sir Telford discovered that several of his oldbowlers and homburgs had been requisitioned by desperateTurkish staff members at the dragomanate. In fact, securinga hat in hat-starved Istanbul was only half the battle. It hadalways been a dandy’s city were even the boatmen and theporters made a point of wearing their fezzes at just the rightangle. How to wear the thing, this newfangled hat, was just astaxing a problem. “How to Wear the Hat” articles thatappeared in the press were voraciously consumed. But theproblem was as much with the hats themselves as with thewearing of them; there was no correct way of wearing many ofthe styles that were being unloaded on the unsuspectingTurkish population.

Outside of Turkey, the fez survived for many decades. The gentleman at right is wearing a fez in the bazaar,

of Haifa, Palestine, late 1920s.


Seventy-eight-year-old Faik Kurtar was a baby when his family came to Turkey fromAlbania. Faik Bey remembered that he was a fez-wearing primary school pupil when the hat lawswere introduced. “We knew all about cowboy hats in American culture,” he told me in his Istanbulflat. “Homburgs were so similar that we imagined ourselves as cowboys. And you can imagine howthat made us feel as kids.”

“Woolen bonnets on bearded porters, woolen balaclavas on smart lounge suits,” read acontemporary account. Old stocks of fez felt were dyed a less conspicuous color and fashioned intoshapes intended to resemble hats. Would their memory fade so quickly? Were fezzes discarded bythe million by Turks with a theatrical sense of history who took themselves down to the water and,after perhaps casting a last fond glance at the hat that had served them so well, tossed their fezzesinto the Bosphorus in such numbers that the waters ran red with their drowning reflections? Of leftthem to be collected by the Red Crescent so that they might be turned into slippers for the infirm andthe destitute? Doubtless, nobody would have smiled quite like the Gazi as converted fezzes were trodunderfoot until the soles eventually broke up, the detested badge of ignorance became dust that waslost on the winter wind, and Turkey was believed free of the past.

Excerpts from A Fez of the Heart, Travels around Turkey in search of a Hat, chapter six (London/New York 1995)

====================================================================

B O O K R E V I E WAmy Singer. Charity in Islamic Societies (Cambridge University Press 2008).

The book's broad historical and geographical scope not only makes it an ambitious study butalso causes some discontinuity in terms of sustaining a focused argument and attention to exegesis.Nevertheless, Singer provides sufficient and diverse evidence - whether from the Qur'an, the worksof al-Ghazali (d. 1111), or early modem fatwas - to present a sophisticated picture of charitablegiving, its symbolic, social, and economic dimensions, and its place in the arena of humanbeneficence. She draws some parallels with Judeo-Christian charitable traditions and brings intodiscussion contemporary visual illustrations and empirical anecdotes. Two premodern non-academicsources that Singer uses repeatedly for eyewitness evidence are the travel books of Ibn Battuta (14thcentury) and Evliya Celebi (l7th century). She identifies certain Shi'i norms and practices that aresometimes overlooked in introductory studies. The book is structured simply, written clearly, anddotted with insightful interpretations, making it useful to specialists and accessible to students. Singer's approach is topical rather than chronological. Questions such as "Who gave? Who received?Who were the deserving and undeserving poor?" (p. 14) are addressed in separate chapters. Thequestion of how "the charitable impulse was expressed in different historical settings" (p. 20) isexplored from the perspectives of the donor and the recipient, the law and the public perception.Singer uses the terms "charity," "beneficence," and "philanthropy" interchangeably and points outthat even the Qur’an does not always clearly distinguish between zakat (obligatory alms) and ºadaqa(voluntary charity) (see, for example, p. 36).

In the introduction, Singer points to a relative paucity of in-depth Western studies on Islamiccharity and lists as neglected areas theological, ritual, and social aspects of Islamic almsgiving andphilanthropy. To alert the reader to the complexity of charity dynamics in Islam, Singer notes thatemphasis on charity as generosity shown to the needy leads to the common perception of patronagealong vertical lines and may overlook the element of reciprocity. Compliance with such a universallyrequired obligation as zakat "was mostly an invisible performance" (p. 26), and therefore itsimplementation across time and space is for the most part absent from the records. Monumentalbuildings or elites' extravagant public donations of robes, food, and money not only were morevisible than but also obscured the discreet acts of everyday almsgiving and kindness by those of


modest means. Nevertheless, giving benefited most Muslims, and most Muslims gave. Singer emphasizes that in the contexts of other forms of taxation and state economics

dependent on tax collection, the place of zakat varied over time. Jurists debated zakat rules and facedthe challenge of assessing changing forms of income and other wealth. Directed toward God inintent, but impacting people, communities, and authorities, obligatory almsgiving evolved inrelation to material well-being and personal spiritual norms. The organization, collection, anddistribution of zakat concerned and were contested by rulers, scholars, merchants, and farmers. Anecessary part of local economies, zakat collection was subject to abuse and required periodic fatwasfrom jurisconsults to address new situations. Sufi hospices (zawâyât) sometimes both collected anddistributed alms. Charity coupons fromEgypt 1965-75. A per-son buys a booklet ofcoupons from thecharity, and is thenauthorized to sell eachcoupon for the de-signated amount sothat the initial buyer iscompensated and thesubsequent buyershave donated tocharity, but thecharity receives thefull amount up front. Usually sold duringRamadan. Top left, Associationfor the improvementof Prisons; top, Children’s AidCooperative; middle, Women’s Health Improvement Association; bottom, Committee for Winter/Rainy Season Aid. From the Editor’s collection.

Despite the ideal of sharing wealth, poverty was not considered a sufficient reason to receivebeneficent distributions. In the chain of charity, the recipient might also be a giver in turn. Payingout money was not enough: intent and the manner of fulfilling the obligation were also of para-mount importance. Singer also discusses zakât al-fiþr, or alms given to the poor at the end of theRamadan fast. This is an obligation of a lower order (mentioned in the hadith but not the Qur’an)though observed almost universally.

In addition to zakat, Singer discusses Muslim endowments and voluntary charity, legallydefined as ºadaqat at-taþawwu’ (alms of spontaneity). She explains the prominence of ºadaqa in partby the fact that zakat “did not prove an effective instrument for relieving need and redistributingwealth” (p.65). Singer also provides a useful “calendar of charity,” emphasizing the variety andubiquity of charitable gestures (p. 73). The calendar includes regular and occasional opportunitiesfor devotional giving from Friday mosque attendance to boys’ circumcision celebrations to ‘îd al-fiþr food distributions. Such public events allowed for more direct and informal contact between thegiver and the recipient than did zakat and therefore more clearly demonstrated and reinforcedpatronage ties. Because they were also more observable than zakat, such events produced moreaccounts by European travelers impressed by the pervasive Muslim culture of giving.


Singer makes a point that children’s education included learning about charity, whether fromthe teachings of the Qur’an or from observing the actions of the surrounding community. Safedelivery from danger was routinely marked by giving alms, a point even recorded in the ArabianNights. Mamluk and Ottoman sources document public distributions on behalf of the sick or inthanks for those who recovered from illness. Medical care was effected through endowed hospitals,but death and funerals were also accompanied by animal sacrifice and distribution of food andmoney. Chapter 2 includes a section on waqf, a highly visible form of endowed foundationsupporting construction and maintenance of buildings dedicated to charitable service and/or payingfor such services in perpetuity. Singer's discussion is based on the Hanafi regulations of waqfproperties, deeds, and practices.

The aspirations, patronage, and status of donors are discussed separately from the needs,expectations, and behavior of the recipients of charity. Regarding the former, Singer highlights thecases of royal women active in endowments and other charitable work from Saljuq to Ottoman times.These are special cases not only because they are better documented than other women's activitiesbut also because for the women themselves performing such deeds was an opportunity to play a rolein public life. Paradoxically, elite women had greater freedom to practice charity than some men-Ottoman princes, for example, were not alowed to endow mosques, which might create theappearance of competing with the sultan over wealth and prestige. Guesthouses for travelers aidedthose without support networks and spread the fame of the donor far beyond his own land. Examplesfrom Safavid Iran and Mughal India show ways in which Shi'i or Hindu practices shaped patronage.Chapter 4, while concentrating on less visible beneficiaries of charity, hospitality, and patronage,emphasizes that none of these measures aimed to raise the recipient to the level of sustainable self-sufficiency. Here the author dwells on definitions of poverty, the merits and demerits of begging(pertaining especially to Sufis), and the categories of deserving poor, among whom were the dwellersof Mecca, Medina, and other holy cities of Islam. Drawing comparisons, Singer remarks that unlikesome European practices, Islamic relief did not require incarceration or controlled living conditionsfor beneficiaries. However, we know that some hospices for orphans and widows, being in effectcharitable institutions for disadvantaged women indeed controlled (sometimes quite strictly) theliving conditions and behavior of inmates.

The section on the economics of charity outlines the modernization of the philanthropicadministration in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states. Singer considers the nature of modemstates' disbursements and obligations to their citizens, concluding that while the Ottoman Empire wasnot a welfare state, it was a "welfare society." She points to the large imperial waqfs as being closestto "state welfare agencies" (p. 183). Modernization of the Ottoman government and imperialadministration entailed waqf reforms and deeply affected the mechanisms of welfare services. In the20th century, state welfare agencies and better protection of property rights contributed to a declinein waqf endowments in some parts of the Muslim world, while state ministries took over some ofthe functions previously fulfilled by waqfs. Managing poor relief became a primary responsibilityof late imperial charity in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt, and bureaucratization of poor reliefbecame a preoccupation for new nation-states. Modern Islamist thinkers have highlighted zakat asan instrument of social justice and helped to revitalize its role as a fiscal mechanism. Officialnational zakat systems have been created, and the relationship between the poor and the police hasalso undergone a dramatic change. Modern communication and fundraising have allowed theformation of new associations, combining nationalist goals with Islamist reformist ideology. Withminimal government support, some philanthropic associations have aspired to development projectsor were formed by women to benefit women and girls.

Reviewed by Marina Tolmacheva in the International Journal of Middle East Studies (vol. 44. 2012) pp 836-839.


m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m

CLOSED ALBUM

EARL GALITZ1946 – 2015

Earl Galitz of Miami, Fl. passed away on Feb. 22, 2015. He grew up in South Florida and was afamily lawyer in Miami for over 30 years. He retired in 2013 and moved to Maryland to be near hissister part of the year. An avid stamp collector, he was an expert in Bulgarian philately with many international award winning exhibits, including a large gold medal at Washington 2006 for " Northand South Bulgaria: 1879-1886”. He was a long-term member of the Ottoman and Near EastPhilatelic Society, American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors and APS.He loved to play and dance to folk music and also played classical chamber music for many years.Musically gifted, he could play almost any instrument. Earl and his wife both enjoyed traveling theworld and eating exotic foods. He lived life just the way he wanted it and had fun along the way. Earlis survived by his wife, Marisa, and sister, Nina, who will miss him very much.

BILL GOECKLER

I am sadly informing you that my husband Bill Goeckler passed away on 21 January, 2015. Hefought the good fight but pneumonia took him from us. He spent many years thoroughly enjoyingworking on his stamp collections. Sincerely, Karen Goeckler, Warminster, PA

h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h

M E M B E R N O T I C E S

A W A R D SA philatelic exhibition was recently held (18-25 March) in Canakkale, Turkey, to mark the 100thanniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign. Two ONEPS members achieved high awards: Kemal Giray POW's in Turkey During the Great War - Gold Turkish POW's in the Great War - Gold Timur Kuran The End of the Ottoman Empire as Seen Through Postal Stationery - Large Gold, plus a finalist for the Best in Show award.


Baghdad-Haifa Overland Mail and

Iraq Railway Stamps 1928 - ca. 1942Advanced research collector is looking forcontacts with other collectors of this area. Willpurchase any kind of items related to thesetwo specialties. Rainer Fuchs, AmBurkardstuhl 33, 97267, Himmelstadt,Germany. < [email protected] >

Yemen & Persia. Will purchase philatelicmaterial from Yemen up to around 1950:stamps, covers, postal and official documents,revenues. Will also purchase Persia/Irancovers & ppc's. Bjorn Sohrn. < [email protected] >

Navy League Revenues. Will buy perforated color essays, color essays,Immigration (red overprint) and Matches(black overprint), on documents, etc. Senddescription or images to: Rolfe Smith.<[email protected] >

WANT LISTS Filled: Ottoman, TurkishRepublic, & North Cyprus. Veryreasonable prices. Rolfe Smith, 705 SE SandiaDrive, Port St. Lucie, Florida. 34983 USA.<[email protected]. >

TRADE my Middle East & North Africaduplicate stamps for yours. Richard T.Barnes, 11715 - 123rd St. NW, Edmonton,Alberta, T5M 0G8 Canada. < [email protected] >

Wanted: Russian perfins. Even if you haveonly one Russian perfin to offer, considertrading it with me. I have perfins of manycountries for trade, incl. China, Japan, andUK. Dick Scheper, Hogeland 1, 2264 JX.Leidschendam, The Netherlands. < [email protected] >


THE OTTOMAN and NEAR EAST PHILATELIC SOCIETY

The Society was established in 2000 and is an affiliated organization with the American PhilatelicSociety. New members can join by sending a completed application plus appropriate dues to theSecretary (checks only in $US payable to ONEPS). Applications can be obtained from the Secretary ordownloaded from our website www.oneps.net.

Membership renewals should be sent directly to the Treasurer. Dues are payable by Dec. 15 each year. USA, Canada, Mexico – USD $20. UK - £17 to Mr. Michael Fulford, Ruth Cottage, Main Street, East Langton, Leics. LE6 7TW. Turkey - €20 to our Representative in Turkey (see below). All other countries - €20 or $25 to the Treasurer. Our Treasurer has set up a payment option using Paypal. A fee of $1.50 should be added to take care of fees.Payments go to is <[email protected].. Members should indicate their name in the "note" area andmention that the payment is for ONEPS dues. ONEPS now has a eBay account, which is another avenue for membership. Subscription to The Levant isincluded in the cost of membership. Members who join in mid-year pay the annual dues and receive all issuesof The Levant plus any special issues for the calendar year. Changes of address, email, etc. are to be sent

to the Secretary. SOCIETY OFFICERS Elected OfficersPRESIDENT VICE-PRESIDENT SECRETARY TREASURERRobert Stuchell Yavuz Corapcioglu Rolfe Smith Marwan Nusair193 Valley Stream Ln P.O. Box 1103 705 SE Sandia Drive P.O. Box 498788Wayne, PA 19087 Germantown, MD 20875 Port St. Lucie, FL 34983 Cincinnati, Ohio 45249 (610) 251-2244 (772) 240-8937 (513) 289-6337 [email protected]@msn.com [email protected] [email protected]

AppointmentsJOURNAL EDITOR QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WEBMASTER REPRESENTATIVE Richard Rose Carl Catherman Marisa Galitz IN TURKEY511 Dwight Place 906 Market Street [email protected] Mahmut EmirmahmutogluBerkeley, CA 94704 Mifflinburg, PA 17844 Papatyali sk.42/4(210) 464-7122 (570) 966-6236 Ciftehavuzlar,Kadikoy 34728, Istanbul, [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

The Levant is published three times a year and mailed at First Class Rates in the USA and Canada, and atAirmail Rates to Overseas members. Advertising Policy: Members are allowed free ads in The Levant’sclassified section. Formal advertisements and notices are charged $100 for a full page, $50 for a half-page, $30 for a quarter page. Camera-ready material is required. ONEPS reserves the right to rejectand/or limit advertise-ments. Articles appearing in The Levant may be reprinted with the approval of theEditor, unless personal copyright by the author is claimed. Back issues can be obtained from the Editorfor $1.50 each, plus postage.Articles, Letters, Reviews, Announcements, Questions, and Information related to any aspect ofOttoman, Turkish, and Near East philately should be sent to the Journal Editor, Dr. Richard Rose. Thenext issue will appear only when YOU write up something about your collecting interests, or encourageanother collector to do so. We also reprint articles, so please bring to the Editor’s attention any articlewhich has appeared in another journal or magazine (permission will be sought).

The Internet ---- Log on to our Society ONEPS Web page <www.oneps.net> and find links to TheOriental Philatelic Association of London (OPAL), Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Osmanisches Reich/Türkei(AROS), and Tughra Net, the online link among collectors.


1909 Beirut Printed Matter Returned from Egypt Rida Bazzi < [email protected] >


mailto:[email protected]

Color Images from Q & A Round-up

From Riachi collection :


journal of the ottoman & near east philatelic society

Documents