Syria had a hard time figuring who it was. After being dominated by the Ottomans and then the French, perhaps a new Syrian way forward can lead to a rebirth. Off to the Sorbonne we go. 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.
The Ba’athists had been heavily influenced by world socialism. That influence can be seen on this stamp. Here we have happy toilers in the field. They are not working to get ahead personally, nor to support a King, and not being exploited by capitalists or colonialists. Instead they are advancing Syrian society. Left unanswered by the stamp is the question of without any of those motivators, what is going to make them do the work. Toiling in the field is a hard life after all.
Todays stamp is issue A68, a 2 and a half Piaster stamp issued by independent Syria in 1954. It was a nine stamp issue in various denominations that hopefully showed off productivity in Syria. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is used or unused.
Syria got it’s independence from France in 1946. In the 8 years that followed Syria suffered an embarrassing defeat by Israel, uprisings from it’s Druze minority and 20 governments working under 4 different constitutions. Hashemite Kingdoms around them were scheming to bring Syria into their fold and the new government in Egypt was promoting their leadership for a united Arab super power. Wasn’t there anything natively Syrian that could turn things around.
Michel Aflaq was a Syrian thinker working on this. While studying at the Sorbonne in France he happened upon some fellow Syrian travelers who were immersing themselves in the work of French philosopher Henri Bergson and German philosopher Karl Marx. Aflaq was an Orthadox Christian Arab who tried to convert what he was learning into something useful for a non industrial and majority Islamic country. So in Aflaq’s telling Arabs are processed of a magic that will arise, as it did in the days of Mohammad, into a unity of purpose that will be a rebirth and then a renascence for the people. To achieve this a single political party can guide and be guided by the people, the Ba’athist Party. By subtly shifting the focus from Islam to being Arab, Aflaq has made a place for himself as a Christian, and a place for Bergson and Marx, who perhaps are not the type of thinkers an Islamist would normally seek out. In addition to Syria, Ba’athist political parties were formed in many Arab nations and had a long rule in Iraq.
Aflaq wrote inspiringly about a Ba’athist future but was less good on how to manage a transition to the world he imagined. He was eventually pushed aside as an outsider in Syria and sent into exile. In Ba’athist Iraq, where he wasn’t personally vying for political position, he was welcomed as a great Arab scholar and philosopher. The last Iraqi Ba’athist leader, Saddam Hussein even claimed that Aflaq had a late in life conversion to Islam. Whether it is true or not, the importance placed on it shows how impossible the task of bringing Arabs together without a dictatorship.
Well my drink is empty and Syria still finds itself ruled by a Ba’athist who is pressured by all sides, yet survives. Still struggling to create that promised united Syrian rebirth, but all life is a struggle. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.