History of the Egyptian Post
This article covers the history of the Egyptian Post from the early Middle Ages to the late 19th century.
development
middle Ages
Egypt was still a province of the Caliphate in the Middle Ages , and the postal facilities were only intended for the ruler. A large post road led from Baghdad to Syria via Kahirah ( Cairo ) to Alexandria , or to western Africa.
A post office was set up under the Fatimids . A pigeon post was also at home in Egypt. With the decline of Egyptian rule, the postal system also fell into disrepair.
The Mameluke Sultan Baibars I (1260–1277) brought the postal system to a new bloom. The post roads were manned with horse relays, which made an uninterrupted courier service possible. At the same time he revived the pigeon mail. The most important postal routes led from Cairo , along the Nile, to Upper Egypt , to Alexandria, to Damiette, the port city on the Nile Delta, and to the east through Syria and Palestine to the Euphrates. Under the successors of the Sultan Baibars, the postal system fell into disrepair again.
Modern times
After the Ottoman conquest, the Turks and later the Mamelukes again ruled Egypt. The campaign of Napoleon interrupted this situation from 1798 to 1801. In 1808, Muhammed Ali , a Turkish general, came to power. He became the undisputed ruler and is considered one of the most important men in Islamic history. This dynasty lasted until 1952.
The Khedive Mohamed Ali (1811–1848) created a new postal service intended only for the government. Only letters were sent. With the conquest of Sudan (1821), letters were carried there by camel.
International correspondence
Only Sheikh Hassan, born in Cairo, set up a private postal service. The fees were negotiated for each letter individually until the government took over the delivery of letters to Middle or Upper Egypt.
There was no regular international correspondence at that time. Letters sent abroad were handed over to shipmen for collection. The first tariff for Prussia had existed since 1847, with mail being carried via England and in 1848 via France. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, correspondence then passed through Trieste or Brindisi .
Between 1836 and 1914 there were French post offices in Alexandria and Port Said . The post offices in Cairo and Suez were abolished in 1875 and 1888, respectively. England had post offices in Alexandria and Suez from 1831 to 1878. Austria (1838–1889), Greece (1859–1882), Italy (1866–1884) and Russia (1867–1875) maintained other foreign post offices, each in Alexandria.
The Italian Carlo Merati had set up a post office called “POSTA EUROPEA” in Alexandria as a contact point for these private letters. Since the company was profitable, he also set up a private post office between Alexandria and Cairo. It took 24 hours for the 200 km. In 1854 post offices were set up in Cairo, El Atfi and Rosette, and in 1855, after the opening of the Alexandria - Cairo railway, others in Damanhur and Kaffr El Zayat. Other post offices followed. The letters were transported by rail. Compensation of 780 Egyptian pounds, about 20 Reichsmarks, had to be paid for this, and from 1862 letters were sent free of charge.
In 1864 the government took over the postal service and paid the Italian Muzzi family 950,000 francs. There were 19 post offices in Egypt.
The first stamps were printed in Genoa in 1866. Egypt has been a member of the Universal Postal Union since it was founded in 1874. Mail has been carried on the Suez Canal between Port Said and Ismailia, on the Nile since 1880. Land delivery service was introduced in Egypt on May 1, 1889. On June 1, 1931, the Egyptian general management moved its headquarters from Alexandria to Cairo.
Between 1865 and 1881 the Egyptian Post operated up to 19 post offices in the area of the Ottoman Imperial Post, in which Egyptian postage stamps were used. The use can only be recognized by the postmark. These were either date stamps with Italian inscription or negative Arabic seals. The locations were (according to Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalog): Bairout (1870–72), Cavala (1870–72), Constantinopoli (1865–81), Dardanelli (Çanakkale, 1868–81), Djeddah / Gedda (1865–81), Galipoli (1868–81), Jaffa (1870–72), Lagos (Porto Lagos, 1870–72), Latakia (1870–72), Leros (1873–74), Mersina (1870–72), Metelino (1870–81 ), Rodi (1872–81), Salonicchi (1870–72), Scio (Chios, 1870–81), Smirne (1865–81), Tenedos (1870–71), Tripoli (1870–72) and Volo (1870– 72).
literature
- " Manual dictionary of the postal system ", published by Julius Springer, Berlin 1927 (and edition from 1953, p. 27)
- Ludwig Kalmus, "Weltgeschichte der Post", Vienna 1937
- Ernest A.Kehr & Philip Cockrill, "THE POSTA EUROPEA AND 1984 KEHR CATALOG OF INTERPOSTALS", self-published by the author, Hampstead Norreys 1984, Newbury, Great Britain.
- Bob Lamb: Egypt. In: American Philatelist September 2015 issue; from the series of articles / category Worldwide In A Nutshell
- Werner Steven, "Compilation of postage rates for correspondence with foreign countries, Taler - Currency, 1846 - 1875", self-published by the author, Braunschweig 1985, new revised manuscript 2005.