The Alawite State or the Alaouites (Fr.) was located between the Turkish province of

Hatay Hatay Province ( tr, Hatay ili, ) is the southernmost province of Turkey. It is situated almost entirely outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of ...

(formerly the Syrian province of Alexandretta) and Lebanon. Geographically within Syria, the Alawite state was administered under a French mandate between 1920 and 1930 and as the ''

Sanjak Sanjaks (liwāʾ) (plural form: alwiyāʾ) * Armenian language, Armenian: նահանգ (''nahang''; meaning "province") * Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: окръг (''okrǔg''; meaning "county", "province", or "region") * el, Διοίκησι� ...

of Latakia'' from 1930. Rossiter, Stuart & John Flower. ''The Stamp Atlas''. London: Macdonald, 1986, p.219. From 5 December 1936 (effective in 1937) it was fully incorporated into

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Alaouites

France never designed

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

s specifically for the Alawite state. There was an initial period in which Syrian stamps were used, inevitably causing accounting difficulties between the Alawite and Syrian postal services. In 1925, French stamps were overprinted "ALAOUITES" followed by a denomination in

piastre The piastre or piaster () is any of a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for "thin metal plate". The name was applied to Spanish and Hispanic American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venice, Venetian traders in the ...

s (French stamps being denominated in francs) and this was followed by the same information in Arabic. Later between 1925 and 1930, similar overprints were used on stamps of Syria. Airmail overprints included the word "AVION" and after 1926 a picture of a monoplane.

Latakia

From 1931 to 1936, stamps of Syria were overprinted "Lattaquie" in French and Arabic.

References and sources

References Sources *

Stanley Gibbons The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philat ...

Ltd: various catalogues
Encyclopaedia of Postal History
{{PostalhistoryAsia French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon Latakia Alawite State Philately of Syria

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...