Oman stamp – The-Philatelist

Where would we be without the ultra helpful stamp advisors of local Sultans? Well stamp collectors aren’t going to learn much about the province from official Omani issues and only a tiny portion of collectors are Mormon, and so are aware of Dhufar’s place in Mormon lore. 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.

This of course is not a real stamp so there is no catalog listing. It proports to remember the 100th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, which dates it to 1974. Dhufar was not a member, and as far as the Union was concerned, the area was represented by member Oman. The stamp does not tell us what painting this is.

Oman was a rough place in the 1960s. The interior sections under a Imam were trying to break away from the Sultan of Muscat. The nomadic interior people were far different from the descendants of Arab traders on the coast. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, the Imam had some support. He also had postage stamps, printed in Britain by stamp dealer Clive Feigenbaum and handled by Lebanese stamp dealer Youssef Salam Tedros. The support lead Lebanon and Syria to accept the State of Oman issues for postage so it was possible to order your topical stamps with real postal cancelations. I covered a fake state of Oman issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2020/03/18/omanstate1969-the-state-of-being-a-fake-stamp/ .

The discovery of oil in the interior strengthened the Muscat Sultan’s resolve to hold on to the interior and the Imam was defeated and went into exile. If Feigenbaum and Tedros were to continue their fake stamp business they needed a plan B. Tedros became the postal advisor to a local Sultan in Dhufar in northern Oman on the border with Yeman. He was and is a vassal of the Sultan of Muscat.

Muscat took the name of Oman as part of national reconciliation. There was a new threat as socialist South Yeman began supporting rebels seeking to liberate Dhufar and all of Oman from the Sultans. There was fighting in Dhufar that made the world news and indeed areas of Dhufar were under rebel administration.

In the press materials for the stamp issues, it was strongly implied but not said directly that the stamps were for use in the rebel held areas. This implication lead socialist Syria briefly to accept the stamps for postage so there are a few Damascus postal cancelations of the stamps. Oman’s real post office did not accept the stamps but did not file formal objections to Dhufar stamps with the Universal Postal Union as they had done previously to the State of Oman issues.. They must have understood that it actually was for the benefit of the Sultan.

In 1986, the fighting in Dhufar came to an end with the rebels defeated and the Sultans still in charge. The Sultan and the stamp dealers decided it was time to end the stamp issues. Too bad the socialist rebels never had a rival postage stamp advisor. Tiny far off, war torn places are better with rival stamp issues.

The stampless, doomed Dhufar rebels. Leave it to the socialists to let their women fight alongside

Dhufar plays a part in the lore of the Mormon Church. The Mormon prophet Lehi is believed to have sailed from the “Land of Bountiful” around 600 BC for the New World. They place the land of Bountiful as Dhufar.

Well, my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

In 1969 Oman was known as the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. That name was about to be shortened to Oman as the Sultinate was facing attacks from pan Arabist from South Yemen and wanted to present themselves as a united country. Nearest I can tell this stamp does not emanate from the rebelling area of Dhofar, just another one of those 60s fake stamp promoters. 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.

These small royalist enclaves were sure hotbeds of fake stamps. We have covered the stamps of the no longer in power Royal government of North Yemen here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/ . and Finbar Kenny’s “Dune” stamps here, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/10/sharjah-lets-you-enjoy-modern-art-thanks-to-finbar-kenny/ . Since this is not a real stamp there is no catalog value or official issue date.

The postal history of the area is interesting with the first post offices opened by the British East India company in Muscat. Muscat was a trading post city ruled by a Sultan while the interior area was known as Oman and had much autonomy to have a more traditional religious government under an Imam. The Sultans Royal House also controlled the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar until it was conquered by Tanganyika in 1964, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/ . The discovery of oil in the interior led to a period of war as the Imam had to be displaced so that the oil revenue would go to the Sultan. This pitted the Sultan and his backers in Iran and Great Britain against the Iman and his backers in Saudi Arabia. The Muscat Sultan won that battle and the Iman went into exile. He tried and failed to get international recognition for his Imamate of Oman.

Having won that battle did not make everything rosy. In the 1960s, the traditional governments faced a growing threat from Marxist pan-Arabist that viewed the Sultans, Kings, and Emirs as illegitimate and tools of colonialists and economic exploiters. The pan-Arabist had come to power in neighboring South Yemen and there was an immediate pulling away of the trading post of Aden into a bigger all Arab but no longer trading city. South Yemen immediately started funding separatists in the neighboring region of Dhofar. Muscat had much more oil than Yemen and if you are not going to trade, the money must come from somewhere.

Muscat and Oman had to modernize to meet this new threat. Part of this was taking the name of Oman. The oil and loss of Zanzibar had shifted the country already from coastal trading to cashing the checks of interior oil wells and the deeply religious of the interior were natural rivals of the “infidel” pan-Arabists flooding in from Yemen. Part of the modernizing was Qaboos bin Said overthrowing his father. This was mostly bloodless except the old Sultan managed to shoot one of the coup plotters. Unfortunately for him while cocking his pistol he also shot himself in the foot. The old castle had of course lots of escape tunnels but when your coup plotter is your son he knows them all too and now with a hurt foot, you are not so fast moving. The old Sultan was captured and signed the abdication papers. Oil wealth then allowed him to live out his years at a suite in the Dorchester hotel in London.

Again with military help from Britain and Shah era Iran, Oman was able to defeat the Yemenis in Dhofar. The focus on the interior of Oman versus the trading of Muscat remained. Muscat is not a modern trading post in the manner of Dubai or Qatar. Qaboos bin Said remained Sultan till his death early this year. The oil will eventually run out. His legacy might be tarnished by not putting in place a system that can remain prosperous without the oil.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.