AFGHANISTAN ( د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت)

Afghanistan (Pashto/Dari: افغانستان, Pashto: Afġānistān Dari: Afġānestān), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country in South and Central Asia. Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south; Iran to the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north; and China to the northeast. Occupying 652,000 square kilometers  it is a mountainous country with plains in the north and southwest. Kabul is the capital and largest city. The population is around 32 million, mostly composed of ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks. The land has historically been home to various peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviets, and by the United States with allied countries. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khaljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, and others have risen to form major empires.

The first stamps appeared in 1871. They were round in shape, imperforate, and printed in black, with a crude lion's head, surrounded by Arabic script specifying one of three denominations. The era of round designs ended in 1891 with rectangular issues for the "Kingdom of Afghanistan". The three designs consisted entirely Arabic script, and were printed in a slate blue color. The 1892 issue featured the national seal consisting of a mosque gate and crossed cannons.

In 1894 simplified versions of this design were printed on green paper. The 1898 issues of the national seal on a variety of colored paper were not regularly issued. The first issue after independence came out on 24 August 1920, a design featuring the royal star of King Amanullah. The three denominations were also the first to use Latin script for the numerals as well as Arabic. Beginning in 1924, each year at least one stamp was issued in February to commemorate independence, a pattern that held steady, with few omissions, until the 1960s. Afghanistan joined the Universal Postal Union in 1928; previously international mail required stamps of British India. In 1927, the first Roman letters had appeared on an Afghan stamp, the inscription reading "AFGHAN POSTAGE". This changed to the French "POSTES AFGHANES" in 1928, and remained in that form (with some deviations, as in the 1939 issue) until 1989.The Afghan stamps of the 1930s and 1940s are rather plain affairs, mostly typographed, with large blank spaces in the design. The definitive series of 1951 was finely engraved by Waterlow and Sons, several featuring portraits of Mohammed Zahir Shah.

Afghan Post is the national postal organization of Afghanistan. It has offices in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, and is getting close to having offices in all 364 districts. Afghan Post is responsible for providing courier services in Afghanistan. It is important to note that most homes in Afghanistan, particularly in older neighborhoods and in the rural areas, still do not have street addresses. Names and other descriptions may be used in place of street addresses.

Afghanistan first established mail service in 1870, where it received international recognition. In late 1970s, it had grown into one of the stronger regional postal services, able to send and receive letters from anywhere in the world. During the 1990s, the Afghan postal service was suspended due to a civil war in the country. Sending a letter usually meant having to find someone traveling in the direction of the recipient willing to carry a note and hoping for the best. It gradually began to develop in the mid-2000s during the Karzai administration. Afghan Post has turned into a promising administration.

Stamp production resumed when the Taliban regime was overthrown and the Afghan Postal Authority reconstituted. The first issue of a postage stamp after the hiatus was the May 2002 stamp showing Ahmad Shah Massoud, a military general and national hero who defended Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and later led a resistance movement against the Taliban.

This is the first airmail envelope from Afghanistan in my collection. Because of unrest political situations, getting contacts are very limited . The covers posted from Kabul city post office on May 11, 2014 and I received on June 01, 2017.