1909 Scott 9 5c red violet
"Minaret of Juma Mosque, near Malé
Bud's Big BlueBud's Observations
It’s not a silo. It doesn’t store crude
for an oil refinery, nor fresh water for a nation of thirsty islands. And it’s
not a colossal wedding cake that Gulliver discovered in Brobdingnag, the
fictional land of giants (Gulliver’s Travels, 1726), although it appears
to have Brobdingnagian dimensions.
It’s the coral stone minaret built in
1675 by Ibrahim Iskandar I in Malé, the capital of
the Maldives, following his pilgrimage to Mecca. The minaret was meant to resemble
those at Mecca’s gate. It adjoins a mosque, also built of interlocking coral
stone, and a 17th century cemetery with elaborately carved
tombstones and mausoleums, the burial site for sultans and
other Maldivian notables.
Ibrahim’s minaret doesn’t look quite so formidable in the
postcard shown below. It’s only about 50 feet tall, counting the top layer of
the cake (my estimate).
The Old Friday (Juma) Mosque and Minaret, Malé
All Big Blue spaces for The Maldives are
reserved for stamps showing the minaret. I did, however, sneak an earlier King
Edward into a blank space.
The postcard is itself collectable,
being a “Dear Doctor” advertisement for a new medicine, in this case Pentothal
Sodium, an anti-malaria drug, aka “truth serum” in spy novels and movies of the
1950s and 60s. The Abbot pharmaceutical company sent these postcards to
physicians from exotic countries to promote use of their wares. If you’re interested
in praiseworthy junk mail, check out Malaria Philatelists International, a
society devoted to Malaria-related stamps, and “The ‘Dear Doctor' Postcard
Collector Club."
Census: 13 in BB spaces, 1 tip-in.
(1) Used by permission of Malaria Philatelists International.
The Maldives archipelago of some 1200 islands (192 inhabited) is located in the Indian Ocean 400 miles from Ceylon. The atolls are spread out over 35,000 sq miles (90,000 sq km), with an average ground level of 5 feet, the highest point at 8 feet. As one can imagine, tsunamis, and predictions of higher ocean levels are of ongoing concern.
The Maldives were originally explored by the Portuguese in the 15th century, then by the Dutch in the 17th century. But in 1887, the Sultan of the Maldives signed an agreement with the British Ceylon Governor that made the territory a British Protectorate as a dependency of Ceylon, albeit with internal self-government.
Maldives Blog Post & BB Checklist
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Comments appreciated!
Very humorous and informative ! Love the site. I have one question I cannot seem to have answered and as I am trying to complete a KGVI collection it could prove costly or not. Were the stamps of 1933 carried over to be used during the reign of KGVI? They were not included in my 1968 SG KGVI album but are listed in the KGVI catalogue. Thanks for any confirmation, Gary Steward, Quebec
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is I don't know. However, I would think the stamps of 1933 would/could still be used during the reign of George VI.
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