I received an email from a non-collector last week who had just gotten a package of stamps from Fujeira given to him. He was wondering where Fujeira was, and were the stamps valuable. I answered his questions as politely - and as fully - as I could, without laughing. Fujeira is one of a group of nations that have some of the most abominable philatelic histories on record!
In fact, the entire Arabian Peninsula - perhaps all of the Middle East - is a collector's nightmare! Under the Ottoman Empire, the stamps of Turkey were used in most of the area, and even parts of southeastern Europe, until 1914. Britain dominated the southern and eastern edges of the Arabian peninsula, and stamps of British India were in widespread use there. The Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of World War I: Turkey (the heart of the Ottoman Empire) was aligned with Germany and Austria-Hungary, and suffered defeat along with the other aligned nations. Britain and France, through domination of a series of treaties between 1919 and 1923, broke up the Ottoman Empire into many of the states seen on a political map today.
The manipulation of the British and French coalition created (or assisted in the creation of) the states of Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan (Jordan), Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and a number of other independent sheikdoms along the southern and eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula. Stamps were issued for several plebecite territories (mostly under the influence of the French), including Alaouites, Alexandretta, Hatay, and Latakia. Most of these stamps were created by overprinting stamps of Syria. French control of the southern coast of Turkey resulted in the issues for Cilicia, the name of this area. The early stamps of Syria and Lebanon are overprinted French issues, while the majority of the issues for the occupied territory of Cilicia are on Turkish issues.
The British occupation of part of the Ottoman Empire resulted in the issues for Mesopotamia - the territory that became Iraq in 1932. The British League of Nations mandate, in 1920, was renewed by treaty in 1923, and the name was changed to Iraq. The British took full control of the port of Aden and surrounding territories, and managed it as a colony of the British Empire until the 1960's. They also managed the territories of Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and most of the emirates of the eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula through the same period, but unique stamps were only issued for Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait. These were mostly stamps of British India (until 1947, and India's independence), or Great Britain overprinted with the territory's name and/or surcharged with local currency values.
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