1954, Union Postale Arabe

Among its efforts to coordinate their economic life, the founders of the Arab league held their first Arab postal union meeting in July 1954. The postal administration of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen released a joint issue of stamps to commemorate the event on 01/01/1955.

Fig.1 – Libyan FDC.

Fig2 – Jordanian Issue.

Fig 3 – KSA Issue.

Fig 4- Syrian Issue.

Fig.5 – Lebanon FDC.

Fig-6 –Missing Gulf.

Each country issued 3 different values. The stamps depicts a globe with arabesque on background. If we take a closer look to the globe we notice a poor mapping. The Persian or Arab Gulf is missing (red arrow)! This error is not included on any of the Lebanon stamps!

Fig 7 – Another example.

One can reasonably rule out a propaganda stamp on which the mapping error is voluntary in order to claim a territorial entity at the expense of a neighboring country. The dispute over the name of the body of water separating the Iranian plateau, historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf, after the land of Persia (Iran), has only occurred since the 1960s with the emergence of Arab nationalism.

Fig.8 – Gulf.

I thought it is interesting to report this information and to incite philatelist to examine more carefully details on stamps.