Qatar Aviation Connection to Beirut, Lebanon

After World War II, BOAC had to rationalise its many operations around the world, including the Middle East, all the while try to protect itself from the behemoth coming around the corner in the form of Pan Am and TWA.

BOAC had its fingers in Palestine Airways (Palestine), Misr Airwork (Egypt), Iraqi Airways (Iraq), Middle East Airlines (Lebanon), Eagle Airlines (Iran), Malta Airways (Malta), Aden Airways (Aden - Yemen), Kuwait National Airlines (Kuwait) & Turkish National Airlines.

At the same time, Gulf Air was taking its first strides under the name of Gulf Aviation by Frederick Bosworth.

All the while, BOAC was keen to maintain a foothold in MEA, preventing the Americans from gaining a foothold in it, although it began to loose money.

This allowed the British Government to also sell British Aircraft (Viscounts, Comet 4C) preventing American aircraft (Convair 440s, B707) companies access to a potential lucrative market.

Eventually, its ability to sustain continued losses, forced it and the British Government to withdraw, allowing for other to gain shares in these companies.

As such, by 1967 MEA had acquired a number of Boeing B707s.

Unfortunately, during the Israeli raid on the airport on the 28^th of December 1968 both MEA and Trans Mediterranean Airways (TMA) - later merged into one company - lost 14 aircraft including one B707.

At the time MEA was owned by a consortium of companies which included the Qatar Government, and this and Qatar’s constant solidarity with the Arab cause probably explains its presence on a Qatar stamp.

The B707 remained operational with the airline into the 1990s

The image below, shows:

1. The 31^st January 1970 - First Anniversary of admission to the Universal Postal Union - Middle East Airlines Boeing B707.
2. A Middle East Airlines (MEA) timetable, where we can see Beirut as the centre of the connection from Europe to the Middle East, along with same fares for those routes.
3. A cover from Doha addressed to the a BOAC representative in Beirut.

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Qatar Stamps - The First flight between Doha and London

Today Qatar Airways received for the sixth time the coveted SkyTrax 'Airline of the Year' amongst many other awards. Nowadays, it is hard not to think of Qatar Airways when talking about Qatar, yet it was not always so. So I would like to dwell a little on aviation history of Qatar.

The image below, shows that aviation in Qatar began, long before Qatar Airways was one of the few 5 Star airlines of the world.

In fact, it began even before Gulf Air was around. Aviation was a key component of the fast developing oil industry in the region, and so it is no surprise that some of the first aircraft to operated in Qatar (other than the British Air Force) were cargo aircraft bringing and taking heavy essential equipment, required for the oil industry.

The first stamp issue totally devoted to aviation, celebrates the first flight between Doha and London by Gulf Air, in April 1970. The set was issued three days prior to the similar issue from Bahrain celebrating its first connection to London. Remember that Gulf Air although its roots are from Bahrain, was founded as a partnership between Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman.

However, these were not the first stamps linked to aviation issued by Qatar. That honour goes to the 1965 definitive series in which a Kuwait Airlines de Havilland DH 106 Comet can be seen at Doha Airport. Interesting to point out, that Qatar Airways first flight was on the 20th of January 1994 using a wet leased 767-200ER from Kuwait Airlines.

The second stamp issued linked to aviation was in 1968 celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Postal Service. The stamp (see below) shows a messenger riding a camel, and in the background a white silhouette of what appears to be a BAC VC-10 flying above a city.

A year latter, in a set devoted to 'Progress in Qatar Industry and Education' we can see an aircraft at a model airport, while another flies overhead.

One year later, 1970, we can observe a Boeing B707 from MEA airlines at Doha Airport. I shall expand on the possible significance of MEA airlines on a Qatar on a future post.

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These were not the first stamps linked to aviation in the region. In fact aviation in the Middle East has a long and distinguished history, worth a book in itself. But below I show a few of the neighbouring countries stamp issues prior to Qatar's own, devoted to aviation. As, can be seen below, the world largest plane was depicted in some of these stamps. Likewise, and on another post, I shall describe the history of the connection of the worlds fastest airliner ever (the Concorde) to Qatar and the region.

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Qatar - First steps into the space program.

In 1966, Qatar Post designed and printed a special set of stamps honouring space exploration. These were no the first nor the last such themed stamps from Qatar. The first being the 1965 set celebrating the 100th Anniversary of theInternational Telecommunication Union with a depiction of the Telstar, Syncon III and Relay 1 and 2 satellites. These were the first generation of communication satellites and each had a unique part in history.

However, the fate of the 1966 stamps was quite different to the others. The 1966 set was aimed at honouring the first man and woman in space. A quite brave and honourable endeavour. Unfortunately for our stamps, these individuals were Russian, and as such, the British authorities prevented the stamps going to sale.

Until here, there is nothing unique in my story, which is quite well documented. However, I would like to contend, that Qatar was not the only regional state to honour the cosmonauts. Cosmonauts being nothing other than the name for an astronaut in Russian. As such, if we look at the Dubai 1964 issue Honouring the Astronauts we can find a few interesting things (the commonly understood names of the rockets are included in the bottom right corner of the image below). However I would like to disagree with them:

• As can be seen on the Qatar 70 NP stamp and in the 1961 USSR stamp, the red rocket on the Dubai (4NP and 2 Riyal) stamp is exactly the same. They all portrait the Russian Vostok Rocket which carried to Soyuz Capsule in which Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

• The Dubai 1 NP and 5 NP stamps are not the Atlas rocket but rather a precursor - Jupiter C - and direct descendant of the German V2 rocket. Jupiter C was one of the Redstone Family of rockets. It was a test bed for re-entry vehicles (no humans on board) and eventually lead to the Mercury-Redstone variation which eventually carried the first 2 American Astronauts to space in 1961.

• The 2NP and 1Riyal stamp most resemble the Sputnik 2 Capsule within which Laika travelled to space. Both the Russian and Americans were unsure of man's ability to survive the initial acceleration, entry into space and in particular the heat of re-entry. As such, prior to the first human flight, they sent a stray dog in the Sputnik 2. There was never the intention to recover her alive.

• The 3NP and 1½ Riyal stamp appear to the second stage of either the Jupiter C or Vostok rocket.

• Finally the Souvenir sheet, had an overprint variant for the Ranger 7. Again, had no humans on board. It was simply a space probe designed to study the moon, transmitting images back to earth, as an early study of possible landing sites.

As such, I contend it was unfortunate that Qatar opted to include the faces of both Russian Cosmonauts which led to the stamps never been issued. For other that the faces, both the Qatar (70NP) and Dubai (4NP and 2 Riyal + souvenir sheet) stamps included the same rocket. Both honouring the first man into space. The Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.

Be aware that there are forgeries of the Qatar stamps in the market.

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Qatar Stamps - Reaching for the stars

 I apologise, for the lack of recent posts. And also for todays posts, where I do not give as much emphasis to the stamps themselves. But I do feel the topic is pertinent and important.

It was Galileo Galilei who risked it all, including excommunication whose discovery made it possible for us to reach for the star when he discovered and published:

"In my studies of astronomy and philosophy I hold this opinion about the Universe, that the Sun remains fixed in the centre of the circle of heavenly bodies, without changing its place, and the Earth, turning upon itself, moves round the Sun."

Today, this reach for the stars, has allowed us to better comprehend our little corner of the universe, and how perilous its journey is. Please click on the image to learn more. 

On my next post I promise to elaborate more on the stamps themselves, as there is an interesting story within them.

Please share your thoughts or just comment.

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Women in Qatar Philately

In today's Qatar, women have reached the highest positions and gained world-wide fame for numerous initiatives. A number of websites are devoted to highlight their successes:

• Women of Qatar
• Wikipedia - Women in Qatar
• The New Arab - Women leaders and pioneers are Qatar's pride

To reach this level, there have to have been some pioneering women leading the way. I'm no expert on this front, so the below list is a short compilation of some of these pioneers:

• Mrs. Amina Mahmoud Al-Jaydha - the first female teacher in Qatar, eventually becoming the first female Principle of a government school in Qatar. Changing the way girls were taught in Qatar (1953).
• Dr. Iqbal Hamdy - One of the first female obstetrician in Qatar able to convince the then Qatar Ruler, H.H. the Amir Sheikh Ali Bin Abdullah Al Thani to convert a hospital built for Tuberculosis to be used for Maternity Hospital (1960s).
• Sheikha Ahmed Al-Mahmoud - the first women of the Qatari Cabinet on her appointment to Minister of Education (2000).
• Dr. Hyat Khalil Hassan Nazar Heji - the first Qatari Braille teacher in Qatar and Director of the Al Noor Institute for the Visually Impaired (2007).
• Women joined the Qatar Olympic team participating in the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
• In the legal circles Ms. Maryam Abdullah Al-Jaber - the first female prosecutor at the Arabian Gulf level, and Judge Hessa Ahmed Abdullah Al-Sulaiti - the first Qatari female judge.
• In the diplomatic arena to highlight Her Excellency Sheikha Alia Ahmed Bint Saif Al Thani - the first Qatari woman to be appointed as Permanent Representative to the European Headquarters of the United Nations in Europe, later to hold the same post in New York.
• Her Excellency Lolwah Al-Khater - the first female spokesperson for the Ministry.
• Mrs. Fatima Shaddad - the first popular Qatari singer.

No doubt there have been many more, and I apologise for not listing everyone of them. As can be seen from the above list, some of these women would have been pioneers in their own field any where in the world, not just Qatar.

In relation to our main theme, philately, it is interesting to point out that most of the Trucial States (with the exception of Abu Dhabi) issued many stamps depicting both famous men and women, or famous paintings with Men and Women. This is not the case for Qatar, Bahrain nor Kuwait.

The only personalities on Qatar stamp issues in general are Qatari Rulers with a few exceptions as follows:

• World Leaders (1966 & 1968)
• Cosmonauts / Astronauts (1966 & 1969)
• Baden-Powel (1967)
• Golden Age Scholars (1971)
• GCC Rulers (1990)
• Qatar Football Team (2020) - but as a personal stamps - not a true stamp issue

So, perhaps it is not surprising that other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1957 issue overprinted with QATAR), no other woman has been featured on Qatar's stamps. This is not a statement on women in  Qatar society, as they have been, and still are, very influential in all walk of life. There was one stamp designed, printed but never released featuring a female Russian Cosmonaut Valentina Tcherechkova (1966).

Below picture lists all the Qatar stamp sets depicting women in one manner or other as well as the two stamp sets that were painted by Qatari women (click on it to learn more).

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Should you like to learn more on the Russian Cosmonaut Valentina Tcherechkova click on the stamp below.

If you are interested in the theme of Women in Philately, you would be happy to know that there is an association just for this, and they have a FaceBook account, please click on the stamp below to learn more

WIPS Women in Philately

Qatar Post From a Government held to a Public Listed Company

Post offices around the world, with the advent of new technologies, have seen a declining volume of mail. To combat this, and allow fair competition, with the associated improvements to the public in general, Qatar Government, like so many others around the world, opted to transform the post office into a private held corporation in 2001.

This lead directly to a rebranding of the company and an increase in services and facilities provided. Such as direct access to more information for users through its website, and improve facilities at existing offices (such as adding post boxes to the Matar Qadeem in November 2002).

In 2017, the post office became a public listed company but fully government owned. This again came with a rebranding and an increase in services provided to the public.

Today Qatar Post competes directly with the likes of Aramex, DHL, FedEx in providing direct rapid services as well as other internet agents taking advantages of newly formed entities such as Connected by Qatar Post and Turkish Souq amongst others.

As far as our hobby is concerned, a new service has been included - philatelic sponsorship. This allows companies to design stamps to project their brand/image. A three tier service is available. Which hopefully, as it catches on will provide for more innovation and interesting stamps for us to collect.

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Below is a description of the 2002 and 2017 logos of the Qatar Post Corporation

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Qatar Post Office Building

 Our hobby would not be possible without the post office. Not surprisingly the present day Qatar Post Office general Headquarters building, an iconic building, has been featured in at least four stamp set issues.

Although not one of the internationally prized buildings of Qatar (many of which have also been issued stamps for example Qatar University, Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar Heritage Museum), it is nevertheless an iconic building in Qatar and much missed when, and if, the post offices moves to a new location.

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The building was completed and opened to the public in 1987, but the official opening ceremony was held on the 4th of September 1988 by H.H the Amir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani. On the left just behind the Amir is Mr. Ahed al Baker (today he is Qatar Post Supervisor for Health and Safety) and on the right is the then Director of Post Mr. Mohammed bin Saif Al Moadhadi.

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Qatar Stamps - A hobby or a business or ....

Probably one of the hardest articles to write is one calling someone out. But here goes anyway.

Qatar philatelic community has for a few years been paying premium prices for the rarest items. Although the number of collectors is quite small, the one-upmanship amongst the collectors is particularly strong. In this, the ability to buy an item that is claimed to be rare and unique, clearly is a motivation to pay a premium price for such an item - although, as I will elaborate below, sometimes, these unique items are at times, nothing more than a gimmick created just to explore such a collector. One further factor, that gives an advantage to the seller is the online sale system (eBay, Delcampe, HipStamp and so on). A prospective buyer a has a limited time to analyse an item for authenticity and the fear that someone else will buy the item from under their own noses, tends to make the buy option without a full appreciation of the real value, than having the items snatched away by another fellow collector.

Clearly, the market is an open free market and as long as there are people offering items and others willing to pay for them, it is all good and fair, and it’s nothing that I’m prepare to argue one way or other.

However, the lack of readily available information on the number of stamps and FDC’s issued as well as other philatelic items such as colour proofs, artist sketches and so on makes it a one sided market, in that any item appearing the market has the advantage of being claimed rare, unique and valuable.

In my research, I have been able to collect the all postal notices from 1975 onwards, but only a few prior to that date. The ‘English Period’ information should be readily available from the London Postal Museum, something I plan to tackle once the current issues on travel due to the pandemic are lifted.

The postal notices, as I mentioned on a previous post, only began to include information on number of FDCs issued after 1995. All this information will be included in my upcoming books on Qatar Stamps.

Availability of this information would be valuable in determining the rarity of one item or other. On the other hand, many other regional countries have had a number of publications issued/printed detailing the steps in the design process of the various stamp issues  (Dubai a good example of well documented philately), there is virtually nothing, to date, published on the Qatar philatelic area, which I intend to cover with my books. 

However, from the few items I have been privileged of examining, from some of the more unique and complete collections in Qatar I have began to suspect some items in recent online sales to be nothing more than a gimmick to exploit the youth and lack of information in the Qatar Philatelic Market.

As such, the below item, recently placed on the market appears to have all the elements of a gimmick, and nothing to do on a contemporary items to the authentic stamps issued in 1969.

To the collector, I suggest, do not rush, take your time, analyse the items, contact others who maybe knowledgable, contact the seller for proof of authenticity.

But, ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you like the item and it fits in your collection and your wallet, feel free. Long is the time of the American Philatelic Society Black Blot Program, and other similar programs.

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I finally apologise to the seller of the particular item that I have used to make my point. After all, he/she has made no claim to the authenticity of the item. He is simply selling a watercolour with simility to the stamps, nothing else.

Education in 1964 - Qatar Dubai, Kuwait and Egypt

 Both Kuwait and Dubai issued a set of stamps relative to education. But while Kuwait's stamps was a celebration of Education day, a common theme that has been maintained worldwide for stamp issues, the Dubai's stamp issue is slightly different. 

It consists of 8 stamps and a souvenir sheet depicting Dubai's ruler H.H. Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum along with the rulers of:

• Qatar - H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani, 
• Kuwait - H.H. Sheikh Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah, and
• Egypt (UAR) - President Gamal Abdel Nasser

By 1964 all four states had well developed education system covering primary, preparatory and secondary education, although not necessarily compulsory education for all.

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Below are Kuwait's stamps for education day, issued on the 15th of April 1964:

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Gulf States Summit

As the countries on the Arab Gulf were all under the suzerainty of Britain, it was normal for their leaders to have meetings / conferences on a regular basis to discuss items of mutual interest, such as education, development, infrastructure, security, financial stability. Amongst the other decisions was also the issue of the currency (as has been mentioned on a previous blog), in particular the use of the Indian Rupee.

One such conference was held in Dubai on the 7th of July 1965. The below image, although not of Qatar Stamps as usual on my blog, does include the Ruler of Qatar - H.H. the Sheikh Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani, as such, still falls under the Qatar History which is the second theme in the blog.

It is a particular nice design set and one that is not readily available in the market in Mint Near Hinged (MNH) condition. It is readily available as Cancel to Order (CTO).

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It is interesting to note that Dubai stamps were issued for a short time. The first set was issued on the 15th of June 1963 and the final set on the 22nd May 1972. After this UAE stamps have been used throughout the UAE.

Qatar Stamps - The 'front' and 'back' of the coin stamps

The coin stamps on the back had a specialised gum (click here to read more on this) which was covered with a waxed paper.

But the stamps 12 stamps were evenly divided with 6 showing the portrait of H. H. The Sheikh Ahmed Bin Ali Al Thani and the other 6 with text - as shown below.

 

Qatar Stamps - Early Pearling

Qatar waters were know to produce some of the best Pearls and were highly sought after by people far and wide. This was the early source of Qatar's fortunes. But on the advent of the cultured pearl, also its downfall, until the discovery of oil.

These stamps show some of the traditional tools used in the pearl diving, click to learn more.

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In 2010, the Doha Film Institute made a short film describing the life of the pearl fishermen, titled "The Land of Pearls", click on the below image to see the film.

Click to watch the movie "The Land of Pearls"

William Gifford Palgrave was a British Jesuit who was the first Westerner to cross the Arabia Peninsula the from Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. To safely cross the lands he occasionally disguised himself as  Christian physician. He crossed from Syria through Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. He spent 10 days in Qatar, having arrived Doha (Al Bidda) on the 29th of January 1862. Click on the image below to read his book from the Qatar National Book Repository.

Click to read his book

For a more abbreviated version of his story click on the map below:

click to read an abbreviated version

Qatar's 50th Anniversary of independence

 Today Qatar marks its 50th Anniversary of Independence from Great Britain, and i couldn't pass top the chance to post something to celebrate the occasion.

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If you would like to know more about the occasion, please click on the below picture to see a video

Relationship between Qatar's first stamps and the Trucial Stamp Issue

The design of a countries stamps requires a little cultural and historic sensitivities. AS such, the designers would tend to be the same for new stamp designs from the same region.

As such the designer of some of Qatar's first stamps and those of the Trucial States was the same.

Click the image below to know more.

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I posted earlier on the design of Qatar's first stamp issue:

Postal Notice for the 1961 Definitive Issue