Qu'aiti,
officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut, was a sultanate
in the Hadhramaut region of the southern Arabian Peninsula, existed
between 1858 and 17 September 1967, in what is
now Yemen. Its capital was Al Mukalla and it was divided into six
provinces including Al Mukalla, Ash Shihr, Shibam, Du'an, the Western
Province and Haj.
As Great Britain planned for the eventual independence of South Arabia
in the 1960s, Qu’aiti declined to join the British-sponsored Federation
of South Arabia but remained under British protection as part of the
Protectorate of South Arabia. Despite promises of a UN referendum to
assist in determining the future of the Qu'aiti state in South Arabia
on 17 September 1967, Communist forces overran the kingdom and, in
November of that year, the Qu’aiti State was integrated forcibly
without a referendum into Communist South Yemen. South Yemen united
with North Yemen in 1990, again without a referendum, to become the
Republic of Yemen. [R1]
Qu’aiti issued stamps first as Qu’aiti State of Shihr and
Mukalla and from 1955 as Qu’aiti State in Hadramaut. The emirates continue issues
stamps until
1968 when they are already part of South Yemen. [R2]
Official stamps of
Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut related to Paleontology: dinosaurs and
other prehistoric animals