Tag: Lebanon stamp

In the cradle of civilization, there are all these leftovers of old times. At the mouth of the Dog river in Lebanon, ancient armies left stone tablets to mark that they were there. The next army passing, seeing the old tablet, is then inspired to leave one of its own. There are now 17 plaques from the ancient Egyptians through to the modern state of Lebanon. 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 stamp today is from the period of the League of Nations granted France a mandate to administer Lebanon. You issue a stamp like this of a historic site to suggest that you are acting as a good steward of the area. That was true, the stone tablets were not removed to be displayed in Paris in a museum or even worse as a rich guy’s trophy. In fact the French were inspired by them, leaving two new ones mentioning their being there and another to honor war dead, you know the price they paid for being there.

Todays stamp is issue A13, a 4 Piaster stamp issued by Lebanon in 1930. It was a 21 stamp issue in various denominations showing ancient sites around Lebanon. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.60 used.

The crossing of the Dog river at the site of the bridge is quite trecherous although the river if fordable during certain times the year. The troubled crossing probably inspired the leaving of the earliest stone tablet by King Ramses II of Egypt around 1200 BC. Ramses left three tablets recording his adventures in then Phoenicia. Around 600 BC came new tablets from Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II  and then 5 more from various Assyrian Kings.

Around 217 BC it was the Romans turn to make a mark under Emperor Caracella. He left more than a tablet he left the first version of the bridge shown on the stamp. Tablets under the Byzantines written in Greek also expand on the efforts made in roadwork and improving the bridge. Why not, if they don’t toot their own horn, who will?

No doubt the mandate period French were inspired especially by the tablet left by Napoleon III dating from his expedition there in 1860. Perhaps less so by the one left by the British in 1918 commemorating the work done by their Arab Legion ridding the place of the Ottomans. Lebanon itself left one in 1946 celebrating the leaving of foreign troops from a new independent Lebanon. Respectfully, neither Israel nor the PLO, nor the various peace keeping foreign legions traipsing through have felt the need to leave a permanent record in stone of their intrusions.

The bridge on the stamp has required several rebuildings since Roman times, most recently in 1809. The modern coastal highway of Lebanon uses a tunnel to cross the Dog river leaving the bridge and its old tablets to the tourists.

Well my drink and I will get the unusual bonus of pouring two more drinks for myself to toast the Romans for building the bridge and the Lebanese for allowing it to survive. Three drinks? gosh this is turning into quite a night. Hope nobody out there decides on a drinking toast game involving all 17 tablets. If you do, invite me. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

What to do when a country is majority Christian but desired by pan Arabist? Don’t ask Lebanon because standing together against outsider threats is not possible. 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.

Todays stamp as the look of a French Mandate over an Arab country. Yet the country was independent and Christian. Welcome to the fertile crescent. Where if one side is up, the other side is down. The French had sensibly ran for the door after the war and their lackeys try to fill their shoes. This stamp is surprisingly honest about the situation.

Todays stamp is issue C296, a 5 Piaster airmail stamp issued by the Republic of Lebanon in February 1961. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations that displayed an Arabic map of Lebanon and Christian President Fuad Chehab. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

During World War II, the French Mandate in Lebanon and Syria initially sided with the Axis aligned Vichy French. This was an embarrassing situation as France  was originally an Allied power. The French colonial troops with Lebanese volunteers standing beside them fought the mainly Australian Allied force sent to liberate them. The Australian forces prevailed and promptly turned over the area to Free French forces. France came to understand that their situation in the area was untenable and Syria was turned over to Arabs to declare independence and Lebanon separated out and turned over to Christian rulers who also declared independence from France. The leaders picked were Maronite Christians whose sect originated in Antioch and was a rival of the Eastern Orthodox Christian church and closely identified with the old Phoenician culture. This group was about 22 percent of Lebanon.

Fuad Chehab got his start in putting together military units of Lebanese that were willing to fight with the Free French Forces. When Lebanon declared independence the units under Chehab’s command became the new army of Lebanon. An imperfect power sharing system was in place that guaranteed Maronite Christian domination but granted some representation to the Arabs. Among the Arabs of Lebanon, there were many followers of the pan-Arabist Syrian Social Nationalist and their armed wing, the Eagles of the Whirlwind. They imagined a greater Syria that included Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and even Cyprus and Cilicia in Turkey.

The first two Maronite Presidents faced much armed opposition. Despite being Maronite himself, Chehab’s army would not be under civilian control and did not lift a finger to support the elected President when trouble came. With no help from his own army, President Chamoun asked for and received American armed intervention to put down the Arab uprising of 1958. Then the Americans did what Chehab had really wanted and gave him the Presidency as a formerly neutral consensus candidate.

No one will be surprised that once Chehab was President, things changed in one respect. When the Eagles of the Whirlwind rebelled against him. the Lebanese army was finally on guard to keep Chehab in power. The army was not much help in the later civil wars or against the armed incursions of Palestinians that so destroyed Lebanon later. That is what happens when it is turned from a national stabilizing force to the lever of power of one man. Lebanon goes on ever trying to perfect a power sharing arrangement between Christians and Muslims and to stay independent from Syria. The Eagles of the Whirlwind are still around themselves and fight alongside President Assad’s army in the long running Syrian civil war.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the French for leaving after the war. Imagine the hopeless effort required to stay. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. 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. We have an interesting story to tell of a museum that is celebrated by a stamp, shortly before being destroyed in a civil war.

This is a great looking stamp. It is well printed and does a good job showing off the museum by putting it in the ancient social context of the area. Lebanon might have been newly independent and still greatly threatened, but there was many years of civilization in the area. At the time, Beirut was a major tourist place, mainly for beaches and nightlife. However, a trip to the museum might lead to a follow-up to the markets where the local handicrafts were available. All this leads to keeping skills and history alive.

The stamp today is issue C697, a 100 piasters stamp issued by Lebanon on December 1st, 1973. It shows the Museum of Handicrafts. It was part of  an eight stamp issue in various denominations showcasing various Lebanese craft people. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.40 cancelled. A mint version would be worth $8.00.

Lebanon was successful and independent when this stamp was issued. There had been no trouble on the border with Israel between 1948-1968. This changed with a large influx of armed Palestinians mainly from Jordan who were intent on harassing Israel militarily. Egyptian President Nasser made an agreement that precluded the Lebanese armed forces from taking any action against these armed groups. This amounted to ceding southern Lebanon to the PLO. To get around the agreement, Christian armed militias formed to try to push out the PLO before Israel invaded. A spate of PLO hijackings lead Israeli commandos to attack Beirut airport and destroyed 10 Arab flagged airliners in retaliation. This understandably angered Lebanese Arabs who also formed an armed militia.

In 1975 all these armed militias and the PLO fought a civil war. For the most part the Lebanon army remained in barracks. Beirut was divided and saw much fighting over the next 17 years. Israel and Syria were also players in this fighting which did not let up when the PLO was removed in 1982-83.

When Beirut was divided into warring districts, one of the dividing lines was Museum row. The museums did there best to remove objects to basements and then seal up entrances but damage was still terrible. The basements flooded damaging much of what was attempted to be saved. The  handicraft museum in Lebanon was put back together in 1993 and was privatized in 2007.

There are still groups trying to encourage the production of handicrafts in Lebanon. Ironically they specially seek out widows of the long civil war to learn the old skills and support themselves while preserving Lebanon’s long heritage.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. Were any of our readers able to tour the Maison de L’Artisan before it closed? How about after it reopened? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.