I doubt stamp collecting was ever a huge pastime in Tunisia. That does not mean there wasn’t an official stamp day with their post office issuing stamps that reflected the unique culture of Tunisia. So for the day, Tunisians put aside the Egyptian pop music so popular then and listened to more traditional music from Spain…. I mean Tunisia. 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.
For stamp day, a player of a traditional Arab/Persian flute called a ney is displayed. In Tunisia that probably means he is accompanying an old style of musical poetry called the Malouf that came to the area from Muslims escaping Spain and interacting with Ottomans and Berbers.
Todays stamp is issue A119 a 20 Millemes stamp issued by independent Tunisia on June 1st, 1968. It was a two stamp issue for Stamp Day that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents unused.
In the 13th century AD, Muslims began to be pushed out of Spain and made their new home on the cities of the North African coasts. The music they brought with them interacted and somewhat replaced the earlier Berber musical forms. In Tunisia these crosscurrents of culture merged into the Malouf. This put to music an Arab style of poetry called Qasidah in a certain musical structure called Nuba. The instruments played were those coming from the Ottomans who were also making their presence felt in the area.
In the 20th century aside from an occasional performance at a wedding the Malouf style was dying out. Instrumental in saving at least the memory of the style was French Baron and musicologist Rudolphe d’Erainger. He wrote a six volume masterwork on the history of Arab music and arraigned with his friend King Fuad of Egypt a symposium in Cairo where performances in the traditional styles occurred. The Baron did not live to see Tunisia independent and the concomitant grasping at wisps of cultural heritage. After independence, the Baron’s palace in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, the Star of Zahra, was donated to the state to serve as a conservatory and venue for traditional Arab music. It is lucky for Tunisia in the absence of local historians, Baron d’Erainger filled the void.
Well my drink is empty and that is for the best because it is perhaps inappropriate to toast Muslim subjects. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting