Mosque of Ibn Tulun (UAR Era)

This definitive blue stamp captures a striking architectural view of the iconic Mosque of Ibn Tulun, framed elegantly through one of its courtyard's pointed arches. Located in Cairo, Egypt, and completed in 879 AD under the order of Ahmad ibn Tulun, the founder of the Tulunid Dynasty, it is the oldest mosque in the city surviving in its original form and the largest in terms of land area. The engraving highlights the mosque's most celebrated feature: its unique helical minaret with an external spiral staircase, inspired by the Great Mosque of Samarra. Issued under the United Arab Republic (UAR) postal authority, the stamp features the red, bilingual "PALESTINE / فلسطين" overprint for administrative distribution in the Gaza Strip, using a world-renowned masterpiece of early Islamic architecture to authorize local postal communications.