The Royal Dynasty in Morocco has been kept around a long time and the country has been fairly stable by Arab standards. The dynasty was brought in to the country in the hopes that being of Mohammed’s family they might bring God’s blessings. Well it went as well as it could have. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
If we put this stamp into it’s time we see how traditional it is. Morocco was just getting it’s independence and instead of pan Arabist socialist in the vein of Egypt’s Nasser, or the Phoenician traders that first organized the place, or even Berber nomads like Libya’s Kaddafi. we see a Sultan from a dynasty that has ruled for 300 years to one extent or another. Will he be able to stand without the French and Spanish behind him?
Todays stamp is issue A1, a 30 Franc stamp that was the first issue of independent Morocco in 1956. It was a 7 stamp issue in various denominations featuring Sultan Mohammed V before he took the title of King. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
The first settlements in Morocco were set up by Phoenician traders but the area had long been home to Bedouin and Berber nomadic Muslim tribesman. The trading posts on the coasts thus developed somewhat differently from the interior. The first Alaouite was brought in in the 13th century from Hejaz to serve as an Imam. The Alaouites could trace their heritage to Mohammed. By the 15th century, they were ruling from the then capital at Fez. There was some rudimentary agriculture involving date palms and of course the piracy that targeted richer European ships. This criminality was defended as some sort of tax due to Allah for Europeans heresy.
Naturally this criminality saw to it that the area was colonized by Spain and France with the trading post of Tangier set aside as an international city. See https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/16/spain-claims-an-international-city-in-morrocco-annoying-the-morroc-er-the-british/ . The Europeans did not have much interest in the interior so left the Alouite sultan in place to deal with the interior. The Alaouites showed their flexibility in bending into this new role as memorialized by the Treaty of Fez in 1912. Unfortunately for especially the Spanish, the Sultans were not much help against the Berbers from the Rif mountains who fought a costly but losing war against Spain. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/25/spanish-morocco-it-is-useful-to-have-a-second-stringer-occupy-much-of-a-large-dangerous-place/ .
In 1943, with The Americans landing in Morocco to push out the Vichy French and trap the German Africa Corp in Tunisia, Sultan Mohammed V saw it was time to again show the Dynasty’s flexibility and expressed support for the socialist independence movement. The Free French for a while tried to hold on. They forced Mohammed V into exile first in Corsica and then more uncomfortably in Madagascar. The French also made a more accommodating cousin Sultan as Mohammed VI. The area got very violent and the French and the Spanish decided it was time for their exit. They allowed Mohammed V to return and both Spanish and French Morocco becoming united and independent. The traditional Monarchy, the Sultan soon declared himself King was not what everyone had in mind. The pro independence socialist became the opposition and the trading posts such as Tangier lost their international flavor as they lost their previous diversity. At least the piracy never started back up and I have no information on how the palm date crop goes. Mohammed V’s grandson is currently King as Mohammed VI. The previous Mohamed VI having been memory holed when he was forced into exile. The poor fellows old Royal Seal was even stolen from him in Beirut.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in a non monetary tribute to the Sultan from Fez wearing a fez, Mohammed V. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting