Ile Rouad, presently known as Arwad, is located two miles south of the coast of Latakia, Syria.

Arwad Island also called Arados, Arvad, Arpad, Arphad, Antiochia, Rouad, and Ruad Island is Syria’s only inhabited island. The island is no bigger than 0.2 km² with being 800 meters from northwest to southeast corner and about 500 meters wide.

The island was settled in the early 2nd millennium BC by the Phoenicians. Under Phoenician control, it became an independent kingdom called Arvad Aradus, and it´s thought that it was one of the very first of the first known examples of a republic.

 

Arwad was occupied by French troops in August 1915, during the First World War. Due to its proximity to the mainland of Ottoman Empire an intelligence center was established on the island and the French were able to collect crucial information. Arwad became a strategic point that ensured French dominance in Syria.

In 1919, the island became part of the French T.E.O ( Territorires Ennemis Occupes) and in 1920 became part of the Alawite State (Alaouites).

First Stamps Issued: January 12, 1916
Currency: 100 centimes = 1 piastre (1916)

Early in 1916 a civilian post office opened in Arwad with stamps of French offices in Levant overprinted Île Rouad. The definitive overprints arrived around Nov. 1916.

These were replaced in 1919 by the general issues for French-occupied Syria (T.E.O.).

The stamps shown were designed by Louis-Eugène Mouchon who was a French painter, graphic artist, medalist, engraver and sculptor. His most famous stamps are the Mouchon series and the Navigation & Commerce series of French postage stamps. This series is known to philatelists as Type Blanc.

The other issues (Stamps not shown – I don’t own any) are on a beautiful stamp called “Allegory” by collectors. It represents “Liberty-Equality-Fraternity”, the motto of the French Republic. The designer was Paul Joseph Blanc, and this series is known to philatelists as Type Blanc.

These designs appear on issues of the stamps from France but these are printed on stamps of the same design but are on the 1902-06 French Offices in the Levant issues.

Arwad is the only inhabited island along the entire eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

PS – If you are bringing this up at a party you should probably go home.

Arwad Island is mainly a fishing village but in recent years the island has been trying to become a vacation destination. There are ruins of fortresses and other historical sites that can be explored or you could just go fishing and nap.

 

I would like to collect more of the stamps of Ile Rouad in the future. Forgeries exist especially those with vertical overprints so, again, I will do my homework and research more before venturing out.

Forgeries here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20091028072207/http://www.geocities.com/claghorn1p/Rouad/index.htm