Something for everyone! A 1930 Greek newspaper mailed from Istanbul to Shanghai. Red Crescent stamp at bottom and Child Welfare stamp at right. Endorsed 'via Siberia', which appeals to the old Russian collector in me.
Stamp catalogs
1. General catalogs.
Michel. The German catalog. An excellent general catalog published annually.
Scott. The American catalog. Necessary to communicate with American dealers. Published annually.
Stanley Gibbons Central Asia. This British catalog covers Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. The current edition was published in 2006. The best general catalog around.
2. Specialized catalogs.
Burak Pul Evi. 1991. Spesialize Türk Kataloğu.3rd. ed. Burak: İstanbul. An excellent catalog of Turkish issues through 1941.
İsfila. I find this the best specialized catalog. Published annually. In addition, İsfila has begun to publish an additional volume each year covering an issue or issues. Isfila: Istanbul. The first volume, published in 2008, covers the Tuğra issues, and the 2009 issue covers the Duloz issues.
Pulko. A good Turkish catalog. Published annually.
3. The classic catalogs. These are well worth the cost to obtain.
Passer, Adolph. 1938. The Stamps of Turkey. The Royal Philatelic Society: London. This is a classic catalog in every sense, and all subsequent catalogs are the children of Passer. An indispensable work that covers the issues through 1936.
Pulhan, Ali Nurset. 1973. Türk Pulları Kataloğu. The author: İstanbul. Another indispensable classic with a wealth of information on the issues up to 1973. Pulhan published a number of editions of his catalog, but the 1973 edition is by far the most comprehensive, covering all aspects of Turkish stamps. There's a site with images of all the pages in the catalog here.
4: Catalogues of specific areas.
Basaran, Mehmet. 2007. The Tughra Stamps: One Man’s Journey Into the Unknown. The author: London. The definitive study of the tughra issue of 1863, summarizing previous research into this classic issue.
____. 2010. The Cover Story: One Man's Journey Into the Unknown, Part 2. The author: London. This volume is devoted to covers franked with the tughra issue, 1863-1865. It draws on earlier research of many giants in the field.Turkey: The Duloz Issues, 1865-1887. Published by David Feldman, S.A.: Geneva. The magnificent Duloz collection formed by Max Plantiga. A beautifully produced documentation of this great collection.
Mayo, Max. 1984.Cicilie: Occupation Militaire Française. The author: New York. The French occupation of Cicilia after the First World War.
Mayo, Max. 1991.Anatolia. The author: Ivy, VA. Covers the range of Turkish nationalist issues 1920-1924.
McDonald, William T. 1998. Revenues of Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey. Second ed. The author: Couperville, WA. An outstanding catalog of Turkish revenue stamps.
Scheper, Dick.. 2008. Perfins of the Ottoman empire, Turkey, Crete, and the Foreign Post Offices in the Levant. The author: Leidschendam, The Netherlands. As the title suggests, this catalog covers Ottoman and Turkish perfins, including those of foreign offices in Turkey, and those of Crete up to 1924.
1934 registered domestic cover from Fatih (Istanbul) with child welfare stamp.
Lilac cancel of Istanbul railway station.
Postal History
1. General Postal History and postmarks of specific areas.
Çorapçıoğlu, Yavuz. 1999. Ulusluarası Tarihi Sergisi/International Ottoman Postal History Exhibition. Ankara. This is the catalog of an international exhibit of Ottoman postal history held in Istanbul in 1999, with sample pages from each of 36 exhibits (including much more than a sample from two of them). It contains a wealth of information on many of the fields of Ottoman postal history.
Melon, Prodromos. 1991. Contributions to the Postal History of the Ottoman Post Offies of Dodecanese. Karamitsos: Athens.
Tomkins, Major T. L. C. 1961. Turkish Arabia: Note on the Cancellations of the Former Provinces of the Ottoman Empire in Asia Including the European Consular Posts and Cancellations of the 1914-1918 War. Second edition. J. Huxley: London.
v. Uexkull, Jakob. 1988. The Early Postal History of Saudi Arabia. Sahara Publications: London.
2. Postmarks.
Ağaoğulları, Ziya and Bülent Papuçcuoğlu. 2003-2010 . Resimli OsmanlıTürk Damgaları 1840-1929. İsfila: İstanbul. A ten-volume study of all known Arabic-script cancels of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic based on the lists of post offices in postal guides and other contemporary sources.
Bayındır, Hilmi. 1993.Osmanlı-Türk Mühür ve Damgalar./Turkish Seals and Postmarks 1840-1929. Five vols. The author: İstanbul. A huge study listing almost 3000 postmarks of the period.
Brandt, Orhan and Sadık Ceylan. 1963. Türk Postaları Filatelik Damga ve Mühürleri 1863-1920 / Premières Marques postales de la Turkie. Pulhan: İstanbul. This was a pioneering work on Turkish postmarks and seals.
Coles, John H. and Howard E. Walker. 1984-1995. Postal Cancellations of the Ottoman Empire. Four vols. Christie's - Robson Lowe: London. A classic work, still indispensable.
Nuhoğlu, Hidayet and Tayip Mert. 1990. Osmanlı Posta damgaları. İslam Tarih, Sanat ve Kültür. Araştırma Merkezi: İstanbul. This book illustrates over 2000 cancels, mostly dating from the period 1910-1918. It also contains useful indices of placenames and name changes.
3.The Holy Land has attracted a great deal of interest. These are some of the best works in this area.
Aizenberg, Salo. 2010. Postcards from the Holy Land. Society of Israel Philatelists: Shaker Heights, OH. While not a philatelic work itself, this study of postcards in the period 1880-1918 has a great deal of information useful to postal historians, as well as a wealth of beautiful pictures of postcards.
Alexander, Zvi and Kemal Giray. 2000-2007. Filistin’de Osmanlı Postaları: Alexander Koleksyonu/The Ottoman Posts in Palestine: The Alexander Collection. Three vols. Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfi: İstanbul. A catalogue of a magnificent collection of this material.
Collins, Norman J. and Anton Steichele. 2000. The Ottoman Post and Telegraph Offices in Palestine and Sinai. Sahara Publications: London. The most comprehensive study of Ottoman Holy Land philately.
Pollack, F. W. n.d. The Turkish Post in the Holy Land. The Holy Land Philatelist: Tel Aviv. Reprinted by Barry Hoffman: Boston. Superceded by more recent works, but still full of valuable information.
4.Placename indices. In addition to the above works on cancellations, there are a number of useful placename indices to help locate the source of a cover or cancel.
Primary Sources.
Ağaoğulları and Papuçcuoğlu (2003-2010) list the following postal guides for the Ottoman period.
1865: Salname Sene 1281.
1869: Posta Tarifnamesidir Sene 1285.
1884: Telegraf ve Posta Tarifnamesi 1 Mart Sene 1300.
Indicateur des Postes et Télégraphes de Turquie 1/13 Mars 1884.
1892: Posta Rehberi 1308.
1896: Telegraf ve Posta Nezareti – Memalik-i Mahruse-i Hazret-i Padişahide kain Telegraf ve Posta Merkezlerinin esamisini mübeyyin risaledir 1312.
1899: Telegraf ve Posta Nezareti – Memalik-i Mahruse-i Hazret-i Padişahide kain Telegraf ve Posta Merkezlerinin esamisini mübeyyin risaledir fi 1 Nisan Sene 1315.
Administration Impériale des Postes et Télégraphes – Nomenclature des Bureaux de Poste et de Télégraphe de l’Empire 1er Mars 1899.
1903: Posta ve Telegraf ve Telepfon Müdüriet-i Umumisi – Memalik-i Osmaniyede kain Telegraf ve Posta Merakeziyle Şabatin esamisini mübeyyin risaledir 1319.
Administration Impériale des Postes et Télégraphes – Nomenclature des Bureaux de Poste et de Télégraphe de l’Empire 15 Octobre 1903.
1909: Posta ve Telegraf ve Telepfon Müdürieti Umumisi – Memalik-i Osmaniyede kain Telegraf ve Posta Merakeziyle Şabatin esamisini mübeyyin risaledir fi 1 Haziran sene 1325.
Direction Générale des Postes des Télégraphes et des Téléphones Ottomanes – Nomenclature des Bureaux de Poste et de Télégraphe de l’Empire 1909.
1913: Devleti Osmaniye Posta ve Telegraf ve Telefon Nezareti Posta Rehberi 1329.
1914: Devleti Osmaniye Posta ve Telegraf ve Telefon Nezareti Posta Rehberi 1330.
Administration des Postes, Télégraphes et des Téléphones – Guide Postal 1914.
1915: Devleti Osmaniye Posta ve Telegraf ve Telefon Nezareti Posta Rehberi 1331.
Secondary Sources.
Birken, Andreas. 1992. Philatelistischer Atlas des osmanischen Reiches. The author: Hamburg. An outstanding source with a detailed map and index of placenames. The best source I know of for this sort of information
Peker, Uğur. 1984. Osmanlı İmperatorluğu İdarî Taksimat ve Posta Şubeleri/ The Administrative Division and the Post Office in the Ottoman Empire. Berkmen Philatelics: Ankara.
The Turkish Republic.
The sources listed above give place names and post office lists for the Ottoman period. For the Republican Turkish period, Pulhan (1973), listed in the section on classic stamp catalogs, gives a list of Turkish post offices as of 1940 on pp. 88-96. Also Nuhoğlu and Mert (1990), listed in the section on postmarks, has a useful index of placename changes since the end of the Ottoman period.
Reverse of a triple-weight cover from Istanbul (undated cancel) to Mecca. One piastre for the letter rate, one piastre for registration, and two piastres for each 15-gram unit above the first.
5. Foreign Post Offices in the Turkish Empire.
Under a series of treaties, called capitulations, numerous foreign governments operated post offices in the Turkish Empire. The capitulations were abolished in 1914, but some governments reinstated their post offices briefly after the First World War.
Various post offices in the Holy Land.
Steichele, A. 1990. Handbook of Holy Land Philately, Vol. I (The Foreign Post Offices in Palestine). World Philatelic Congress of Israel, Holyland and Judaica Societies: Chicago
Austrian Post Offices.
v. Eberhorst, Alexander Eberan. 1903. Die Österreichische Post in Konstantinopel von ihrem Entstehen bis zur Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts. The author: Vienna. Reprinted 1994 by Giorgio Migliavacca: Pavia.
Tchilinghirian, S. D. and W. S. E. Stephen. 1962-1967. Austrian Post Offices Abroad. Seven vols. The Austrian Stamp Club of Great Britain: Aberfour.Tranmer, K. Austrian Post Offices Abroad. Vol. Eight. The author: Hornchurch. A continuation of Tchilinghirian and Stephen’s seven-volume work.
Egyptian Post Offices.
Smith, Peter A. S. 1959. "The Egyptian Post Offices Abroad in the Turkish Empire." The Congress Book. American Philatelic Congress: Atlantic City, pp. 121-137. Reprinted in The Tughra Times, vol. 20 no. 1: 13-29.
Fulford, Michael. 2011. "The Egyptian Post Office In Ottoman Smyrna." OPAL Journal 227:13-15.
French Post Offices.
Pothion, J., J.P. Alexandre, G. Noel. 1982. Bureaux Français á l'Etranger 1561 – 1948. La Poste aux Lettres: Paris.
Bassil, Semaan. 2009. Seventy Years of Postal History at the French Post Office in Beirut/Soixante-Dix and d'Histoire Postale du Bureau de Poste Français à Beyrouth. Lebanese British Friends of the National Museum: London.
German Post Offices.
Findiess, H. 1994. Ehemalige deutsche Kolonien- und Auslandspostämter: Stempelkatalog. Schwanberger Verlag: München.
Friedemann, A. and H. Wittmann. 1984. The Stamps and Cancels of the German Colonies and the German Post Offices Abroad. Five vols. Germany and Colonies Philatelic Society.
Gerlach, Hans-Henning and Andreas Birken. 2007. Deutsche Kolonien und deutsche Kolonialpolitik, Bd. 5: Marokko und die Türkei . Philatelik Verlag.
Kiepe, H. 1992. Deutsche Post in der Türke., Berichte für Kolonialbriefmarken-Sammler 96. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen.
Italian Post Offices.
Dauphine, M. C. and C. Pilkington. 1988. The Italian Post Offices in Constantinople 1908-1923. Fil-Italia Handbooks: Teddington.
Tchilinghirian, S. D. and R. R. Bernadelli. 1963-1974. Stamps of Italy Used Abroad. Six vols. Harris Publications: London.
Russian Post Offices.
Tchilinghirian, S. D. and W. S. E. Stephen. 1957-1960. Stamps of the Russian Empire Used Abroad. Six vols. The first two volumes deal with the Russian post in the Ottoman Empire. British Society of Russian Philately: Bristol. This work was followed by numerous “Used Abroad Chronicles in the British Journal of Russian Philately.
6. Postal Rates. Despite some initial controversy, Esmer's and Schmidt/Birken's works on Ottoman postal rates are largely in agreement.
Esmer, Erkan. 1996a. The Ottoman Empire: A Study of Postal Rates, Routes, Delivery Times and Historical Events. The author: Charlton Hights, West Va.
____. 1996b. Ottoman Empire: A Study of Rates, Routes, and Delivery Times. In The Congress Book. American Philatelic Congress: Orlando.
Furfie, Michael. 2010. International Postal Rates 1890s - 1957. The author: Ashford, Middlesex, UK. This book gives international surface rates for the Republican period through 1957. Although it does not give domestic and airmail rates, it is practically all there is for the Republican period. The relevant Turkish rates for the period 1921-1957 is summarized in Peter A. Michalove. 2011. "International Postal Rates in the Turkish Republic."OPAL Journal 227:34-36.
Schmidt, Wolfgang and Andreas Birken. 1997. Die Postgebühren. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Osmanischen Reich/Türkei. James Bendon: Limassol.
7. The Ottoman Calendar.
Birken, Andreas. 1995. Die Zeitrechnung/ The Calendar. Zavallis: Nicosea.
Rose, Richard B. 1988. Reading Ottoman Dates: Reference Guide. The author: Richmond, CA.
Double-rate letter Pera (Istanbul) to Izmir with Arabic-script registration label.
One piastre for domestic letter (wartime rate for domestic letters not raised until 1918), one piastre, ten paras wartime rate for registration, 30 paras rate for second 15 grams. Total of three piastres paid.