Alaouites, or the Alawite State, was a French mandate in the coastal area of present-day Syria after World War I. It was renamed Latakia in 1930 and became part of Syria in 1937. Population was 278,000 in 1930, mostly belonging to the Alawite sect of Shi'a Islam.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the war brought on a scramble to take control of various provinces of the empire. France occupied Syria in 1918, and received it as a a mandate from the League of Nations on September 2, 1920. Initially it was an autonomous territory under French rule, then declared a state September 29, 1923, with the port city of Latakia as its capital.
On September 22, 1930, Alaouites became the Sanjak of Latakia.
France never designed postage stamps for Alaouites; after an initial period in which Syrian stamps were used, inevitably causing accounting difficulties between Alawite and Syrian postal services, in 1925 French stamps were overprinted "ALAOUITES" followed by a denomination in piasters (French stamps being denominated in francs), followed by the same information in Arabic. Later in 1925, and through 1930, similar overprints were used on stamps of Syria. Airmail overprints included the word "AVION" and after 1926 a picture of a rather primitive-looking monoplane.
