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The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels
Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins firmly established Freya Stark as one of her generation's most intrepid explorers. The book chronicles her travels into Luristan, the mountainous terrain nestled between Iraq and present-day Iran, often with only a single guide and on a shoestring budget.
Stark writes engagingly of the nomadic peoples who inhabit the region's valleys and brings to life the stories of the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East, including that of the Lords of Alamut, a band of hashish-eating terrorists whose stronghold in the Elburz Mountains Stark was the first to document for the Royal Geographical Society. Her account is at once a highly readable travel narrative and a richly drawn, sympathetic portrait of a people told from their own compelling point of view.
This edition includes a new Introduction by Jane Fletcher Geniesse, Stark's biographer.
Stark writes engagingly of the nomadic peoples who inhabit the region's valleys and brings to life the stories of the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East, including that of the Lords of Alamut, a band of hashish-eating terrorists whose stronghold in the Elburz Mountains Stark was the first to document for the Royal Geographical Society. Her account is at once a highly readable travel narrative and a richly drawn, sympathetic portrait of a people told from their own compelling point of view.
This edition includes a new Introduction by Jane Fletcher Geniesse, Stark's biographer.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
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About the author
Freya Stark
128 books177 followersFreya Stark was born in Paris, where her parents were studying art. Her mother, Flora, was an Italian of Polish/German descent; her father, Robert, an English painter from Devon.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
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October 28, 2019Freya Stark is a great name, a bare fertility though is not a complete description of her writing style, which reminded me so strongly of Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon that I wondered, until I looked at the publication dates, if Stark's writings consciously or unconsciously had been used by West as a prose model.
There is however one important difference, West's account of a journey through Yugoslavia is tied together by her thesis that the virility of the Serbs and their self-conception as a nation was the only effective counter balance to European fascism, all her snakey explorations of culture, history, or character support that argument while the simple device of moving from north to south, from modernity to the starkness of epoch changing clashes that she ties up with the battles on the plains of Kosovo and Kumanovo.
If Stark has a thesis it is not apparent here. She is content to travel, to explore, rob graves, and appreciate the wide array of people that she meets. In this collection of Stark's writings she is travelling through Iran in the early 1930s, going to Luristan, the Valley of the Assassins, journeying up to the Caspian coast and back down to Teheran. Most of the travelling is done riding on horseback or on a mule, some on foot, she has a variety of paid companions, even if she particularly valued the moments when she could get away from them all and appreciate solitude.
Stark is a bit of an Indiana Jones, although if she got into fist fights with Nazis or whipped people this doesn't get recorded in the pages that she offered up to the public, she is though keen to dig up graves and loot them with the aim of carrying back the odd prized jaw bone or two to the museum at Iraq to be catalogued and stored in a cardboard box or small wooden crate, no doubt in some endless subterranean vault. Alternatively she is the great disappointed traveller realising that her Survey of India maps do not simply have curious stark white empty patches but the occasional river depicted on them is entirely fictional.
The similarity with Rebecca West for me lies in her wit and her obvious sympathy and engagement with the people that she travels among. She dances elegantly in her negotiations with officialdom, exploits her female status shamelessly - in that everybody with self importance assumes her stupidity, which generally allows her to evade problems by extravagantly playing up to any stereotyping, and wanders with endless curiosity through a country in which everyone has a definite idea of how a self-respecting bandit ought to behave . She is an unwilling guest at weddings, chides a melancholy doctor for his opium addiction, and has her attempt to be the first European to scale a certain mountain foiled by a Hungarian who doesn't want a woman to be able to claim that honour . The book is full of splashes of detail about Iran in a period of transition - roads are slowly creeping out from Teheran, the male half of the population have been instructed to wear European style clothes, and nomadic groups are being obliged to settle. This is as much a time capsule as a book, and Freya Stark's sense of delight and adventure in-spite of the heat and malaria is palpable throughout. A slow pleasure of a book .
There is however one important difference, West's account of a journey through Yugoslavia is tied together by her thesis that the virility of the Serbs and their self-conception as a nation was the only effective counter balance to European fascism, all her snakey explorations of culture, history, or character support that argument while the simple device of moving from north to south, from modernity to the starkness of epoch changing clashes that she ties up with the battles on the plains of Kosovo and Kumanovo.
If Stark has a thesis it is not apparent here. She is content to travel, to explore, rob graves, and appreciate the wide array of people that she meets. In this collection of Stark's writings she is travelling through Iran in the early 1930s, going to Luristan, the Valley of the Assassins, journeying up to the Caspian coast and back down to Teheran. Most of the travelling is done riding on horseback or on a mule, some on foot, she has a variety of paid companions, even if she particularly valued the moments when she could get away from them all and appreciate solitude.
Stark is a bit of an Indiana Jones, although if she got into fist fights with Nazis or whipped people this doesn't get recorded in the pages that she offered up to the public, she is though keen to dig up graves and loot them with the aim of carrying back the odd prized jaw bone or two to the museum at Iraq to be catalogued and stored in a cardboard box or small wooden crate, no doubt in some endless subterranean vault. Alternatively she is the great disappointed traveller realising that her Survey of India maps do not simply have curious stark white empty patches but the occasional river depicted on them is entirely fictional.
The similarity with Rebecca West for me lies in her wit and her obvious sympathy and engagement with the people that she travels among. She dances elegantly in her negotiations with officialdom, exploits her female status shamelessly - in that everybody with self importance assumes her stupidity, which generally allows her to evade problems by extravagantly playing up to any stereotyping, and wanders with endless curiosity through a country in which everyone has a definite idea of how a self-respecting bandit ought to behave . She is an unwilling guest at weddings, chides a melancholy doctor for his opium addiction, and has her attempt to be the first European to scale a certain mountain foiled by a Hungarian who doesn't want a woman to be able to claim that honour . The book is full of splashes of detail about Iran in a period of transition - roads are slowly creeping out from Teheran, the male half of the population have been instructed to wear European style clothes, and nomadic groups are being obliged to settle. This is as much a time capsule as a book, and Freya Stark's sense of delight and adventure in-spite of the heat and malaria is palpable throughout. A slow pleasure of a book .
May 2, 2020
First up, it it pretty hard to go past this cover and not love it, I reckon. Not even sure what it is that is so appealing, the yellow gives it an aged look; the (presumably) Persian painting at the base; the symmetry of the ruin; the title itself evokes the badlands; right down to the font on the authors name. Must be worth a star or two, especially for me - a sucker for a good cover at the best of times.
The book itself recounts several separate trips undertaken by Freya Stark, primarily to Iran, but partially in Iraq, and often close to the borders of both. Stark is a pretty legendary traveller / explorer, who thinks nothing of challenging popular opinion with regard to the safety of a woman travelling solo (albeit with her local support crew), but even more so the safety of the places she proposes to visit.
Armed with her obvious determination, her quick wits, her wide knowledge, and not just a little charm, she manages to turn many situations to her advantage, as evidenced by her carrying out archaeological investigations under the very nose of the police who are sent out to prevent her doing so, and escorting her away. She is also quite philosophical, as you can see from some of teh quotes below.
However, it is hard to ignore the fact that Stark is essentially a grave robber, obtaining skulls and grave goods her primary target for her travels - although she justifies it to her readers (and herself) on the basis that she is obtaining these for museums and the like to preserve them, which is better than selling them to dealers for private collectors. Her other goal on her travels is mapping - the foreword suggests she was probably working for Intelligence, authorised to undertake her travel for this purpose alone. Also with a knowledge of the Koran, and able to speak passable Arabic, Stark is no fool - although she is also able to take advantage of the fact others may jump to other conclusions - My favourite anecdote from the book:
Stark writes very well, but there is no doubt it is a dense book, and I found concentration is a must. As soon as I lost concentration I was left confused and had to return to re-read. The only negative I had was that the whole book was very evenly paced. It didn't build to events, it didn't really have highs and lows which kept the reader engaged with pace. For me it dropped a star there.
Still a good 4 star read.
Some other quotes:
The book itself recounts several separate trips undertaken by Freya Stark, primarily to Iran, but partially in Iraq, and often close to the borders of both. Stark is a pretty legendary traveller / explorer, who thinks nothing of challenging popular opinion with regard to the safety of a woman travelling solo (albeit with her local support crew), but even more so the safety of the places she proposes to visit.
Armed with her obvious determination, her quick wits, her wide knowledge, and not just a little charm, she manages to turn many situations to her advantage, as evidenced by her carrying out archaeological investigations under the very nose of the police who are sent out to prevent her doing so, and escorting her away. She is also quite philosophical, as you can see from some of teh quotes below.
However, it is hard to ignore the fact that Stark is essentially a grave robber, obtaining skulls and grave goods her primary target for her travels - although she justifies it to her readers (and herself) on the basis that she is obtaining these for museums and the like to preserve them, which is better than selling them to dealers for private collectors. Her other goal on her travels is mapping - the foreword suggests she was probably working for Intelligence, authorised to undertake her travel for this purpose alone. Also with a knowledge of the Koran, and able to speak passable Arabic, Stark is no fool - although she is also able to take advantage of the fact others may jump to other conclusions - My favourite anecdote from the book:
The great and almost only comfort about being a woman is that one can always pretend to be more stupid that one is and no one is surprised. When the police stopped our car at Bedrah and enquired where we were staying, the chauffeur, who did not know, told him to ask the lady.
"That is no good," said the policeman. "She's a woman."
"Yes," said the chauffeur, "but she knows everything. She knows Arabic."
The policeman asked me.
I had not the vaguest idea of where we were staying, and looked at him with the blank idiocy which he thought perfectly natural.
Stark writes very well, but there is no doubt it is a dense book, and I found concentration is a must. As soon as I lost concentration I was left confused and had to return to re-read. The only negative I had was that the whole book was very evenly paced. It didn't build to events, it didn't really have highs and lows which kept the reader engaged with pace. For me it dropped a star there.
Still a good 4 star read.
Some other quotes:
Solitude, I reflected, is the one deep necessity of the human spirit to which adequate recognition is never given in our codes. It is looked upon as a discipline or penance, but hardly ever as the indispensable, pleasant ingredient it is to ordinary life, and from this want of recognition come half our domestic troubles.
--
It is a remarkable fact that the people who do things by hand still find time to add to their work some elaboration of mere beauty which makes it a joy to look on, while our machine-made tools, which could do so at much less cost, are too utilitarian to afford any ornament. It used to give me daily pleasure in Teheran to see the sacks in which refuse is carried off the streets woven with a blue and red decorative pattern: but can one imagine a borough council in Leeds or Birmingham expressing a delicate fancy of this kind? Beauty, according to these, is what one buys for the museum: pots and pans, taps and door-handles, though one has to look at them twenty times a day, have no call to be beautiful. So we impoverish our souls and keep our lovely things for rare occasions, even as our lovely thoughts - wasting the most of life in pondering domestic molehills or the Stock Exchange, among objects as ugly as the less attractive forms of sin.
--
He himself had never done so illegal a thing as to open a grave, said 'Abdul Khan, picking at his opium pipe with a bronze bodkin two or three thousand years old, and looking at me with the calm innocence of a Persian telling lies.
--
If I were asked to enumerate the pleasures of travel, this would be one of the greatest among them - that so often and so unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature, and seeing it so by surprise and often with a most improbable background, you come, with a sense of pleasant thankfulness, to realize how widely scattered in the world are goodness and courtesy and the love of immaterial things, fair blossoms found in every climate, on every soil.
August 17, 2011
"Solitude, I reflected, is the one deep necessity of the human spirit to which adequate recognition is never given in our codes. It is looked upon as a discipline or a penance, but hardly ever as the indispensable, pleasant ingredient it is to ordinary life, and from this want of recognition come half our domestic problems. The fear of an unbroken tête-à-tête for the rest of his life should, you would think, prevent any man from getting married. (Women are not so much affected, since they can usually be alone in their houses for most of the day if they wish.) Modern education ignores the need for solitude: hence a decline in religion, in poetry, in all the deeper affections of the spirit: a disease to be doing something always, as if one could never sit quietly and let the puppet show unroll itself before one: an inability to lose oneself in mystery and wonder while, like a wave lifting us into new seas, the history of the world develops around us. I was thinking these thoughts when Husein, out of breath and beating the grey mare for all he was worth with the plaited rein, came up behind me, and asked how I could bear to go on alone for over an hour, with everyone anxious behind me." (126)
July 5, 2020
3.5 stars. I definitely want to read the bio of this intrepid woman. I am fascinated by those women of the 19th & early 20th C who lived outside the boundaries of a traditional life/role of women of their time and went exploring!! Stark apparently wrote about 30 books about her various travels. She was working for the Royal Geographical Society & British Intelligence mapping those remote unmapped areas of the world and this trek into Luristan, a mountainous part of Persia, was one of her first written.
My perception of the topography of the Middle East was definitely one of mainly desert with towns huddled around the rivers that ran through it, I had not thought of any alpine environment or forests. My ignorance was showing.
The original publication of this work was in 1934, this edition (2001) includes a brief introduction by her biographer Jane Fletcher Geniesse. Definitely whets one's appetite to learn more about this remarkable woman.
Stark's preface was delightful. An imaginative aunt who, for my ninth birthday, sent a copy of the Arabian Nights, was, I suppose, the original cause of trouble. Unfostered and unnoticed, the little flame so kindled fed secretly on dreams. Chance, such as the existence of a Syrian missionary near my home, nourished it; and fate, with long months of illness and leisure, blew it to a blaze bright enough to light my way through labyrinths of Arabic, and eventually to land me on the coast of Syria at the end of 1927. Yes, books can change everything.
So she saddles up her mule, and without much fanfare and only a couple of guides she goes in search of unmapped areas, relics of ancient times, and fortresses that tell the history of this area. The beginning 1/4 was a wonderful introduction into a culture of hospitality, some of descriptions of the trekking, I have to admit I felt as if I was slogging through at a snail's ( or perhaps a mules pace). The unfamiliar names and words added to the slow read. The last half of the book, I started to enjoy so much more and I could feel like I am right there with this little troop of travelers. I could see the mountains, smell the flowers and hear the water flowing. I pulled out a trusty National Geographic book with maps of the world to see if I could figure out where "we" were at any given time!
There I retired , after an evening of conversation with an old man, Said Ibrahim....discussing Persian history. ….He was a charming old man, with an interest in life and affairs which distinguishes the hillman or tribesman from the peasant, and learning was to him a real divinity. ….If I were asked to enumerate the pleasures of travel, this would be one of the greatest among them-that so often and unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature, and seeing it so by surprise and often with a most improbably background, you come, with a sense of pleasant thankfulness, to realize how widely scattered in the world are goodness and courtesy and love for immaterial things, fair blossoms found in every climate, on every soil.
Well said indeed!
My perception of the topography of the Middle East was definitely one of mainly desert with towns huddled around the rivers that ran through it, I had not thought of any alpine environment or forests. My ignorance was showing.
The original publication of this work was in 1934, this edition (2001) includes a brief introduction by her biographer Jane Fletcher Geniesse. Definitely whets one's appetite to learn more about this remarkable woman.
Stark's preface was delightful. An imaginative aunt who, for my ninth birthday, sent a copy of the Arabian Nights, was, I suppose, the original cause of trouble. Unfostered and unnoticed, the little flame so kindled fed secretly on dreams. Chance, such as the existence of a Syrian missionary near my home, nourished it; and fate, with long months of illness and leisure, blew it to a blaze bright enough to light my way through labyrinths of Arabic, and eventually to land me on the coast of Syria at the end of 1927. Yes, books can change everything.
So she saddles up her mule, and without much fanfare and only a couple of guides she goes in search of unmapped areas, relics of ancient times, and fortresses that tell the history of this area. The beginning 1/4 was a wonderful introduction into a culture of hospitality, some of descriptions of the trekking, I have to admit I felt as if I was slogging through at a snail's ( or perhaps a mules pace). The unfamiliar names and words added to the slow read. The last half of the book, I started to enjoy so much more and I could feel like I am right there with this little troop of travelers. I could see the mountains, smell the flowers and hear the water flowing. I pulled out a trusty National Geographic book with maps of the world to see if I could figure out where "we" were at any given time!
There I retired , after an evening of conversation with an old man, Said Ibrahim....discussing Persian history. ….He was a charming old man, with an interest in life and affairs which distinguishes the hillman or tribesman from the peasant, and learning was to him a real divinity. ….If I were asked to enumerate the pleasures of travel, this would be one of the greatest among them-that so often and unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature, and seeing it so by surprise and often with a most improbably background, you come, with a sense of pleasant thankfulness, to realize how widely scattered in the world are goodness and courtesy and love for immaterial things, fair blossoms found in every climate, on every soil.
Well said indeed!
November 14, 2012
In 1930, 1931, and1932, Freya Stark traveled as a single woman (with one or two hired henchmen) through mountain regions of what was then Persia, now Iran. Her exotically titled 'the Valleys of the Assassins' recounts those several trips, including one to see the ruins of Alamut, the castle of the Old Man of the Mountain, the original assassins.
Stark's writing is beautiful, with terrific descriptions of the landscapes she passes through. While most of what she does is not physically grueling (some is), it is dangerous in another sense -- she's traveling through a rough, intensely male-dominated tribal society, depending on the hospitality and honor of the strangers with whom she stays. Her account is laced with humor and dry asides, as well as sharp sketches of her traveling companions, hosts, and other people she meets. She is erudite, moving with ease from plant biology to ethnology to medieval Islamic history, without misplacing the down-to-earth tone of her narrative. As a (comparatively) wealthy female outsider, Stark is able to move between the local worlds of men and women, to a degree a male Westerner surely could not have done. She notes the pain of a first wife in a polygamous marriage, displaced in the affections of her husband; the way parents fear for their children (or don't) in a society with high levels of infant mortality; the pride of a young hill-dweller with no experience of the wider world, but a great deal of ambition.
That said, to read this book now is to experience a challenging unease. For one thing, Stark is perfectly happy to loot pre-Islamic burial sites in hopes of discovering archeologically significant items. More seriously, she is at all times a beneficiary of colonialism. Her status as a British national, and her wealth - unimaginable to the most of the hill people she visits - open all sorts of doors to her. Perhaps most centrally, her apparent confidence that she can rightfully travel anywhere she wants (even if she has to deceive the police or village headmen to do it) reflects her time, the high water mark of British imperial power. The sense of privilege isn't explicit, but it is pervasive, and it forms a complicated counterweight to her status as a woman (in Europe or Persia).
Stark's writing is beautiful, with terrific descriptions of the landscapes she passes through. While most of what she does is not physically grueling (some is), it is dangerous in another sense -- she's traveling through a rough, intensely male-dominated tribal society, depending on the hospitality and honor of the strangers with whom she stays. Her account is laced with humor and dry asides, as well as sharp sketches of her traveling companions, hosts, and other people she meets. She is erudite, moving with ease from plant biology to ethnology to medieval Islamic history, without misplacing the down-to-earth tone of her narrative. As a (comparatively) wealthy female outsider, Stark is able to move between the local worlds of men and women, to a degree a male Westerner surely could not have done. She notes the pain of a first wife in a polygamous marriage, displaced in the affections of her husband; the way parents fear for their children (or don't) in a society with high levels of infant mortality; the pride of a young hill-dweller with no experience of the wider world, but a great deal of ambition.
That said, to read this book now is to experience a challenging unease. For one thing, Stark is perfectly happy to loot pre-Islamic burial sites in hopes of discovering archeologically significant items. More seriously, she is at all times a beneficiary of colonialism. Her status as a British national, and her wealth - unimaginable to the most of the hill people she visits - open all sorts of doors to her. Perhaps most centrally, her apparent confidence that she can rightfully travel anywhere she wants (even if she has to deceive the police or village headmen to do it) reflects her time, the high water mark of British imperial power. The sense of privilege isn't explicit, but it is pervasive, and it forms a complicated counterweight to her status as a woman (in Europe or Persia).
January 3, 2019
Some book genres do age like wine. Memoirs grow from current events of yesterday into firsthand reflections on history. 1950s National Geographics restore the cutting edge reality of obsolete technology. Travelogues know a similar evolution; they take us back to lands which no longer exist.
While the narration wears itself thin as it wanders from one rocky hill to the next meagre yet hospitable meal among the nomadic tribes of Persia... it puts a giant footnote to the modernisation saga of the Pahlavi's : in Reza's day, simply the cap of a customs official was a rare physicial manifestation of a modernity imposed by a distant city in bewildering and destructive compelexity.
Also, it's Freya Stark. A woman. Alone. In the 1930s. Take your Western glass ceiling in that day and multiply it by factor ten. Then enjoy the occassional puzzled moment among her hosts...and her discomforting premonition of "Why the West rules...for Now" : "this keen adventurous Kurdish mind is a pleasure to meet, so different from the peasant apathy of the plains. Truly the world belongs to the hillmen".
While the narration wears itself thin as it wanders from one rocky hill to the next meagre yet hospitable meal among the nomadic tribes of Persia... it puts a giant footnote to the modernisation saga of the Pahlavi's : in Reza's day, simply the cap of a customs official was a rare physicial manifestation of a modernity imposed by a distant city in bewildering and destructive compelexity.
Also, it's Freya Stark. A woman. Alone. In the 1930s. Take your Western glass ceiling in that day and multiply it by factor ten. Then enjoy the occassional puzzled moment among her hosts...and her discomforting premonition of "Why the West rules...for Now" : "this keen adventurous Kurdish mind is a pleasure to meet, so different from the peasant apathy of the plains. Truly the world belongs to the hillmen".
December 3, 2015
Freya Stark lived a fascinating, fearless, adventurous, long life. She spent most of it traveling in the Middle East, much of that travel in regions where women traveling alone was unheard of. She traveled as a native, on a pack mule, sleeping in homes in small villages, learning how the locals lived.
She wrote many articles about her discoveries that were published in the journals of the Royal Geographic Society, and drew up maps of regions that were until then unmapped. She took photographs and accumulated items of historical significance (this was an era of unbelievable grave-robbing and pillaging).
This novel is her accounts of 5 trips in Persia which occurred in the early '30's, soon after the new Shah has assumed control of the country. Although there are roads and electricity in the major cities, where Stark is heading the people still live as they have for millennium. They have been disarmed and there are now Police patrolling, so the outlaw tribes are no longer warring, making it safer for travel.
The book is not an anthropologic documentation of Stark's findings - for that she refers the reader to her published article. Instead this is writings from her diary/journals and here are more her impressions of the places she visits, the receptions she receives and her travels. The only problem was that the reader is not really made aware of this until 3/4 of the way throughout the book. The maps are few and one is illegible so I did not have a good sense of where she was or how far the distances were. There is only one photo in my edition - of one of her guides - and I longed for more - the people, the tents, the dress, the vistas...I wound up spending hours on Google trying to see what she had been writing about, and it was not always easy to find! Names of places have changed and photos of that era are few and far between, the area was being modernized as she traveled and it is very different seeing a road up a mountain rather than a precarious mule path!
Stark presented history of places as told to her by her guides and the locals. She is offered unlimited hospitality everywhere she travels - families move out of their homes so she has shelter, go without so she can eat; it is quite amazing. She tells of villages where traditional enemies live side by side in relative peace, and shows the day to day lives of people who move with the seasons, live off the land and are, for the most part, very happy. It is a fascinating peek into an unknown and mostly gone world.
Stark was a very bright woman, she spoke Arabic and had studied the Koran. She used her wits to get out of tight situations and her humor to convey them to us, the reader. Fascinating, enriching, engrossing read!
She wrote many articles about her discoveries that were published in the journals of the Royal Geographic Society, and drew up maps of regions that were until then unmapped. She took photographs and accumulated items of historical significance (this was an era of unbelievable grave-robbing and pillaging).
This novel is her accounts of 5 trips in Persia which occurred in the early '30's, soon after the new Shah has assumed control of the country. Although there are roads and electricity in the major cities, where Stark is heading the people still live as they have for millennium. They have been disarmed and there are now Police patrolling, so the outlaw tribes are no longer warring, making it safer for travel.
The book is not an anthropologic documentation of Stark's findings - for that she refers the reader to her published article. Instead this is writings from her diary/journals and here are more her impressions of the places she visits, the receptions she receives and her travels. The only problem was that the reader is not really made aware of this until 3/4 of the way throughout the book. The maps are few and one is illegible so I did not have a good sense of where she was or how far the distances were. There is only one photo in my edition - of one of her guides - and I longed for more - the people, the tents, the dress, the vistas...I wound up spending hours on Google trying to see what she had been writing about, and it was not always easy to find! Names of places have changed and photos of that era are few and far between, the area was being modernized as she traveled and it is very different seeing a road up a mountain rather than a precarious mule path!
Stark presented history of places as told to her by her guides and the locals. She is offered unlimited hospitality everywhere she travels - families move out of their homes so she has shelter, go without so she can eat; it is quite amazing. She tells of villages where traditional enemies live side by side in relative peace, and shows the day to day lives of people who move with the seasons, live off the land and are, for the most part, very happy. It is a fascinating peek into an unknown and mostly gone world.
Stark was a very bright woman, she spoke Arabic and had studied the Koran. She used her wits to get out of tight situations and her humor to convey them to us, the reader. Fascinating, enriching, engrossing read!
February 6, 2018
Freya Stark negli anni '30 del secolo scorso ha esplorato le zone più sconosciute della Persia. Erano regioni che sulle mappe della British Geographical Society erano bianche oppure erano disegnate per sentito dire. La presenza di una donna occidentale sola in quelle lontane plaghe era agli occhi della popolazione locale un fenomeno abbastanza sbalorditivo. Freya racconta di come si era quasi abituata a mangiare, leggere, lavarsi e dormire circondata dagli sguardi e dalla presenza di decine di curiosi che non potevano smettere di osservare questo strano animale. La Stark, spirito esploratore indomito, curioso e romantico, si muove con molta disinvoltura in questo mondo arcaico e vedere luoghi e persone di quei luoghi e quei tempi con i suoi occhi è molto piacevole, spesso divertente, alcune volte commovente. Ho trovato ostici i nomi e la pignoleria con cui vengono descritti tutti i tortuosi itinerari ma d'altra parte l'approccio è quello degli esploratori dell'800 che relazionavano minuziosamente tutti i loro spostamenti. Il mio approccio per la lettura è stato di sorvolare su alcune parti più tediose per poi soffermarmi e godermi i dialoghi, le relazioni con le persone, le descrizioni dei costumi e delle condizioni di vita. Un'altra cronaca di un mondo ormai quasi sicuramente scomparso.
January 19, 2021
“In the wastes of civilization, Luristan is still an enchanted name. Its streams are dotted blue lines on the map and the position of its hills a matter of taste. It is still a country for the explorer”
With these evocative lines starts the remarkable discoverer and adventurer Freya Stark's travelogue through some outstandingly remote and wild landscapes in Persia, or modern day Iran. That an exposure to the Arabian Nights as a child is what triggered her life-long fascination - and she lived to be hundred - for travel in the east, is evident in her opening description. Luristan is not the most traversed place on the globe even now but it was quite desolate and uncharted a century ago, as the tribal lifestyle was being brought under the heel of Pehlevi rule in Iran. The sprawling landscape was sparsely populated, the inhabitants lived a basic, tribal lifestyle, and at places the areas was overrun by dangerous bandits. The book is divided into two parts of which the first - 'Luristan' - narrates two separate journeys. The first -A Fortnight in N.W. Luristan 1931 - motivated purely by the passion to explore this largely unknown space; and, as to the second - The Hidden Treasure, 1932 - the name explains it all.
Stark's wanderlust was not wide-eyed and utterly reckless and she displayed much sense and resourcefulness to supplement her tenaciousness, courage, stamina and strength. Yet these journeys are remarkable and charming purely because the pace is unhurried, the quest rather ancillary and the essential motivation knowing every bend on the road and every character on the path. Her sense of wonder is contagious and comes through unadulterated and yet lyrically expressed. She is mercifully largely innocent of the haughtiness, superiority and bigotry of many other European travelers of her age and the ones immediately preceding and succeeding it. There is is also none of the bad-temperedness of a Theroux or the acidity of a Golding in his later years, as on display in his Egyptian journey; on the contrary hers is overwhelmingly a joyful, wondrous, kind, empathetic and sensitive account. There are at times the usual generalizations about east and those from the east, and of the Persian and Persia, but she almost always finds more redeeming aspects than disparaging ones.
What makes this a delightful read are not as much her quests as her tremendous powers of description - she describes the topography and the landscape with a keen and knowing eye and often with poetic flair; and indeed also her lovely, dry but not unkind wit. One of the most amusing character sketches that I have come across in all my travel reading is the elderly, work-shirking, contemplative, quietly dignified and often comical Shah Riza, whom she refers to as the Philosopher. The narrative abounds in glorious descriptions of the terrain and the feelings it evoked, local history and sociology, the tribal lifestyle and customs, and indeed unmatched tribal hospitality and largesse. There are brushes with bandits and the authorities and a lot of grave-robbing - something Stark justifies rather sketchily and then more or less gives up. But despite looking for the fabled Luristan bronzes and other artifacts she finds not much except an ancient skull that she gifts to the Baghdad Museum. The paucity of her findings, however, in no way impoverishes the richness of her experiences. The landscape is harsh, the journeys long and food and refuge often uncertain and uncomfortable, there are several risks, and yet this formidable woman on mule back travels with such irrepressible joy in her heart. Despite not much success in treasure hunting or grave robbing the narrative is of abiding value at multiple levels and keeps one hooked.
The second part of the book - titled 'Mazanderan' (that fabled land of demons that figures prominently in Shahnameh and Persian lore; the venue of the battles of Rustam and other grand heroes) - constitutes of her travels in Alamut valley and other rarely visited valleys beyond (by foreigners of course) and notably her visits to the infamous Rock of Alamut and the castle there as well as the Assassin's castle at Lamiasar and then to Takht-e-Suleman and the verdurous terrain flanking it as well as areas further beyond (the three journeys are titled as A journey to the Valley of the Assassins, 1930; The Assassins' Castle of Lamiasar, 1931; and The Throne of Solomon, 1931). She brings forth the fascinating history of the Cult of Assassins and then meanders through a still rather obscure and mysterious terrain at the time to find her way through long treks on circuitous routes and unnerving climbs to visit the ruins of largely forgotten castle imperially looking over the vast scenery below. That some of them held out against the Mongol horde for such a long time is a testimony to the cult's resilience. She evocatively recreates the times and the players of bygone centuries and once again comes across many a colorful local character. Though her tone is somewhat more testing and impatient than the one in Luristan travels, it is largely owing to the bad time she had in terms of health and various other difficulties of travel including some rather difficult and testing hamlets (a rarity when you look at all her experiences in the book). She came down with dysentery and malaria which at one point makes her even fear for her survival. Yet she pulls through with great perseverance and continues, pulled as she is by the magnetic appeal of the grand mastiff of the Throne of Solomon - which she all but conquers but for the petty duplicity of someone. It is important to note here - and she is fulsome in her admiration and praise - for her local guides and travel companions who are steadfast, protective and incredibly committed and thereby make these travels possible. In the Mazenderan travels it is her old friend Aziz and the tireless man Hujjatt Ullah whom she fondly refers to as the Refuge of God (which of course is what his name literally means).
The last one fifth of the book is over-descriptive and riddled with topographical, cartographic, geological and navigational details which though somewhat dull also demonstrate her skill and expertise. And yet one often finds sublime passages that keep one going. A great stylist that she is I read this narrative pencil in hand, often underlining her lovely descriptions of nature and the terrain, her deconstruction of cults and sects, her imagery and indeed outpourings of her sharp wit. She doesn't miss much - from an enigmatic smile, to the smallest wildflower to the distant and hazy series of peaks in the faltering light. Here are a few different ways she described the heavens above in her travels:
"The night was now like velvet round us, with only the Milky Way above and a dim streak of limestone track below showing vaguely."
"..the sky above was pale and clear with one pink cloud: the evening cool and gentle, swimming softly into moonlight."
"...where my bed was put up in the moonlight. Elburz, under the pale spaces of the sky, stood in majestic folds, as if wrapped in some royal garment of light: the moon swam above, barely higher than our high sleeping-place she seemed. When I woke, some hours later, she looked scarcely to have moved in those distances of the sky."
The valley was now full of loveliness. A last faint sense of day-light lingered in its lower branches, beyond the village houses whose flat roofs, interspersed with trees, climb one above the other above the slope. Beyond the great mountain at our back the moon was rising, not visible yet, but flooding the sky with gentle waves of light ever increasing, far, far above our heads. Here was more than beauty. We were remote, as in a place closed by high barriers from the world. No map had yet printed its name for the eyes of strangers. A sense of quiet life, unchanging centuries old and forgotten, held our pilgrim souls in its peace."
"High in our corrie that night was full of peace. From behind the peak of Solomon the moonlight spread, opening like a fan, while we were held in shadow ... and far away through distances of moonlight we looked out upon Salambar and the Alamut mountains dissolving in dimnesses of sky."
In the great tradition of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century travelers, when there were places in the world as yet unmapped, Freya Stark stands apart amongst the ranks of intrepid explorers. It is evident when you read her and she says as much that she wrote purely for joy - hers and of others. Yet while her spirit and her descriptions are often that of a poet, one marvels still at the difficulty and uncertainty of her undertakings as well as her skill and courage. The motivation to be the first outsider to reach a place or scale a peak or experience a community is always there but so is a deep wistfulness for times gone by, a fascination for history and culture, recurrent meditations on time and its ravages, and indeed also the simple but refreshing and noble urge and knack for finding the best of humanity everywhere. Almost a hundred years after it was written this book is as readable as ever and preserves a remarkable woman's internal and external yearnings for discovery as well as a time and place that has since changed irreversibly.
With these evocative lines starts the remarkable discoverer and adventurer Freya Stark's travelogue through some outstandingly remote and wild landscapes in Persia, or modern day Iran. That an exposure to the Arabian Nights as a child is what triggered her life-long fascination - and she lived to be hundred - for travel in the east, is evident in her opening description. Luristan is not the most traversed place on the globe even now but it was quite desolate and uncharted a century ago, as the tribal lifestyle was being brought under the heel of Pehlevi rule in Iran. The sprawling landscape was sparsely populated, the inhabitants lived a basic, tribal lifestyle, and at places the areas was overrun by dangerous bandits. The book is divided into two parts of which the first - 'Luristan' - narrates two separate journeys. The first -A Fortnight in N.W. Luristan 1931 - motivated purely by the passion to explore this largely unknown space; and, as to the second - The Hidden Treasure, 1932 - the name explains it all.
Stark's wanderlust was not wide-eyed and utterly reckless and she displayed much sense and resourcefulness to supplement her tenaciousness, courage, stamina and strength. Yet these journeys are remarkable and charming purely because the pace is unhurried, the quest rather ancillary and the essential motivation knowing every bend on the road and every character on the path. Her sense of wonder is contagious and comes through unadulterated and yet lyrically expressed. She is mercifully largely innocent of the haughtiness, superiority and bigotry of many other European travelers of her age and the ones immediately preceding and succeeding it. There is is also none of the bad-temperedness of a Theroux or the acidity of a Golding in his later years, as on display in his Egyptian journey; on the contrary hers is overwhelmingly a joyful, wondrous, kind, empathetic and sensitive account. There are at times the usual generalizations about east and those from the east, and of the Persian and Persia, but she almost always finds more redeeming aspects than disparaging ones.
What makes this a delightful read are not as much her quests as her tremendous powers of description - she describes the topography and the landscape with a keen and knowing eye and often with poetic flair; and indeed also her lovely, dry but not unkind wit. One of the most amusing character sketches that I have come across in all my travel reading is the elderly, work-shirking, contemplative, quietly dignified and often comical Shah Riza, whom she refers to as the Philosopher. The narrative abounds in glorious descriptions of the terrain and the feelings it evoked, local history and sociology, the tribal lifestyle and customs, and indeed unmatched tribal hospitality and largesse. There are brushes with bandits and the authorities and a lot of grave-robbing - something Stark justifies rather sketchily and then more or less gives up. But despite looking for the fabled Luristan bronzes and other artifacts she finds not much except an ancient skull that she gifts to the Baghdad Museum. The paucity of her findings, however, in no way impoverishes the richness of her experiences. The landscape is harsh, the journeys long and food and refuge often uncertain and uncomfortable, there are several risks, and yet this formidable woman on mule back travels with such irrepressible joy in her heart. Despite not much success in treasure hunting or grave robbing the narrative is of abiding value at multiple levels and keeps one hooked.
The second part of the book - titled 'Mazanderan' (that fabled land of demons that figures prominently in Shahnameh and Persian lore; the venue of the battles of Rustam and other grand heroes) - constitutes of her travels in Alamut valley and other rarely visited valleys beyond (by foreigners of course) and notably her visits to the infamous Rock of Alamut and the castle there as well as the Assassin's castle at Lamiasar and then to Takht-e-Suleman and the verdurous terrain flanking it as well as areas further beyond (the three journeys are titled as A journey to the Valley of the Assassins, 1930; The Assassins' Castle of Lamiasar, 1931; and The Throne of Solomon, 1931). She brings forth the fascinating history of the Cult of Assassins and then meanders through a still rather obscure and mysterious terrain at the time to find her way through long treks on circuitous routes and unnerving climbs to visit the ruins of largely forgotten castle imperially looking over the vast scenery below. That some of them held out against the Mongol horde for such a long time is a testimony to the cult's resilience. She evocatively recreates the times and the players of bygone centuries and once again comes across many a colorful local character. Though her tone is somewhat more testing and impatient than the one in Luristan travels, it is largely owing to the bad time she had in terms of health and various other difficulties of travel including some rather difficult and testing hamlets (a rarity when you look at all her experiences in the book). She came down with dysentery and malaria which at one point makes her even fear for her survival. Yet she pulls through with great perseverance and continues, pulled as she is by the magnetic appeal of the grand mastiff of the Throne of Solomon - which she all but conquers but for the petty duplicity of someone. It is important to note here - and she is fulsome in her admiration and praise - for her local guides and travel companions who are steadfast, protective and incredibly committed and thereby make these travels possible. In the Mazenderan travels it is her old friend Aziz and the tireless man Hujjatt Ullah whom she fondly refers to as the Refuge of God (which of course is what his name literally means).
The last one fifth of the book is over-descriptive and riddled with topographical, cartographic, geological and navigational details which though somewhat dull also demonstrate her skill and expertise. And yet one often finds sublime passages that keep one going. A great stylist that she is I read this narrative pencil in hand, often underlining her lovely descriptions of nature and the terrain, her deconstruction of cults and sects, her imagery and indeed outpourings of her sharp wit. She doesn't miss much - from an enigmatic smile, to the smallest wildflower to the distant and hazy series of peaks in the faltering light. Here are a few different ways she described the heavens above in her travels:
"The night was now like velvet round us, with only the Milky Way above and a dim streak of limestone track below showing vaguely."
"..the sky above was pale and clear with one pink cloud: the evening cool and gentle, swimming softly into moonlight."
"...where my bed was put up in the moonlight. Elburz, under the pale spaces of the sky, stood in majestic folds, as if wrapped in some royal garment of light: the moon swam above, barely higher than our high sleeping-place she seemed. When I woke, some hours later, she looked scarcely to have moved in those distances of the sky."
The valley was now full of loveliness. A last faint sense of day-light lingered in its lower branches, beyond the village houses whose flat roofs, interspersed with trees, climb one above the other above the slope. Beyond the great mountain at our back the moon was rising, not visible yet, but flooding the sky with gentle waves of light ever increasing, far, far above our heads. Here was more than beauty. We were remote, as in a place closed by high barriers from the world. No map had yet printed its name for the eyes of strangers. A sense of quiet life, unchanging centuries old and forgotten, held our pilgrim souls in its peace."
"High in our corrie that night was full of peace. From behind the peak of Solomon the moonlight spread, opening like a fan, while we were held in shadow ... and far away through distances of moonlight we looked out upon Salambar and the Alamut mountains dissolving in dimnesses of sky."
In the great tradition of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century travelers, when there were places in the world as yet unmapped, Freya Stark stands apart amongst the ranks of intrepid explorers. It is evident when you read her and she says as much that she wrote purely for joy - hers and of others. Yet while her spirit and her descriptions are often that of a poet, one marvels still at the difficulty and uncertainty of her undertakings as well as her skill and courage. The motivation to be the first outsider to reach a place or scale a peak or experience a community is always there but so is a deep wistfulness for times gone by, a fascination for history and culture, recurrent meditations on time and its ravages, and indeed also the simple but refreshing and noble urge and knack for finding the best of humanity everywhere. Almost a hundred years after it was written this book is as readable as ever and preserves a remarkable woman's internal and external yearnings for discovery as well as a time and place that has since changed irreversibly.
August 26, 2012
Freya Stark was the kind of adventurer and writer the world doesn’t really know anymore. She was fearless, at least she made it sound on paper. Trained as a geographer and cartographer, she lived in Baghdad in the Thirties and traveled throughout the Middle East, Turkey and Afghanistan intrepidly, sometimes gathering intelligence for the British, sometimes on Archeological expeditions and other adventures. Freya went places that few westerners at the time would go, let alone a woman traveling alone. She lived at a time when the Ottoman Empire had broken up and areas previously off-limits to Europeans needed exploring. She learned Arabic and Persian so that she could travel and not be dependent on translators.Stark’s strength as a writer lies in her detailed descriptions and her wit. She describes things like a map-maker would, uncovering every detail about a place. Her sense of the human character is sharp and interactions between people often read like scenes from a novel.
The Valleys of the Assassins is a collection of pieces about her travels in Persia in the Thirties. The first story is about an expedition to find a treasure in the mountainous frontier between Persia and Iraq. We might say today that she was set about stealing antiquities, but in her day like-minded people felt they were saving antiquities from being lost forever in a politically tumultuous region. The last pieces describe trips she took in the mountainous region between Tehran and the Caspian sea among a group of people called the Assassins were a Persian Shi’a sect of Isma’ili Muslims who were known for their abilities as professional murderers. All of the pieces are deeply descriptive and funny to read. She documents a world which exists no longer and for that we should be thankful.
The Valleys of the Assassins is a collection of pieces about her travels in Persia in the Thirties. The first story is about an expedition to find a treasure in the mountainous frontier between Persia and Iraq. We might say today that she was set about stealing antiquities, but in her day like-minded people felt they were saving antiquities from being lost forever in a politically tumultuous region. The last pieces describe trips she took in the mountainous region between Tehran and the Caspian sea among a group of people called the Assassins were a Persian Shi’a sect of Isma’ili Muslims who were known for their abilities as professional murderers. All of the pieces are deeply descriptive and funny to read. She documents a world which exists no longer and for that we should be thankful.
October 18, 2013
This is a collection of Stark's writings about her adventure travels in the middle east during the early 1930s, mostly in the Iran/Iraq border region. She traveled on foot and on horseback through what was then (and probably is still) very wild and dangerous country, in a place where women were expected not to be, and managed to face down a good many very difficult and dangerous situations. It's surprising that she survived; but in fact she continued to travel for decades, and died at age 101.
She was apparently a sort of amateur archaelogist. She was also, apparently, a British spy, making maps for the Empire of areas previously unmapped. Naturally, she met any attempts to portray her as a spy with derision, and I guess that spying was merely a sidelight. Nonetheless, she undoubtedly provided good information as she was quite careful in her mapping (two or three samples are included in the book).
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. It began quite quickly to seem like a mere succession of obscure place names - the names of streams or minor mountain ranges, villages comprised of a few tents, that sort of thing. I was able to get some sense of where she was by looking up the major place names in wikipedia. Even so, the English spellings of Persian names can vary considerably. Her "Luristan" is now rendered usually as "Lorestan"; "Alishtar" as "Aleshtar" or even "Alashtar". Even with the aid of Google maps and wikipedia it was quite difficult to get a sense of where she was, or where she was headed, or, often, why she was headed there, or just what, exactly, she achieved by arriving there. She seems to have wanted to immerse herself fully in the landscape and culture of the middle east; and in that she no doubt succeeded, insofar as that's possible for an English woman.
Even so, it's always entertaining to read the accounts of those who have faced great hardship and danger and come out the other side. They seem (either as a cause or effect of their success) to have a light and easy way of writing about their adventures; and Stark is no exception.
She was apparently a sort of amateur archaelogist. She was also, apparently, a British spy, making maps for the Empire of areas previously unmapped. Naturally, she met any attempts to portray her as a spy with derision, and I guess that spying was merely a sidelight. Nonetheless, she undoubtedly provided good information as she was quite careful in her mapping (two or three samples are included in the book).
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. It began quite quickly to seem like a mere succession of obscure place names - the names of streams or minor mountain ranges, villages comprised of a few tents, that sort of thing. I was able to get some sense of where she was by looking up the major place names in wikipedia. Even so, the English spellings of Persian names can vary considerably. Her "Luristan" is now rendered usually as "Lorestan"; "Alishtar" as "Aleshtar" or even "Alashtar". Even with the aid of Google maps and wikipedia it was quite difficult to get a sense of where she was, or where she was headed, or, often, why she was headed there, or just what, exactly, she achieved by arriving there. She seems to have wanted to immerse herself fully in the landscape and culture of the middle east; and in that she no doubt succeeded, insofar as that's possible for an English woman.
Even so, it's always entertaining to read the accounts of those who have faced great hardship and danger and come out the other side. They seem (either as a cause or effect of their success) to have a light and easy way of writing about their adventures; and Stark is no exception.
August 22, 2016
It is quite remarkable that an English woman should, in 1930, take a notion to travel by herself to the remote regions of northern Persia - a land still closely resembling the tribal patterns of medieval days. With local tribesmen as guides, she made her way over the mountains and through the valleys casting herself upon the hospitality of the villagers. She seems to have been quite fluent in language and well acquainted with the history of the area which certainly worked in her favor. A fascinating glimpse into a land on the verge of change as the Shah's new road was pushing into the area bringing the era of modern travel and all the changes that implied.
November 27, 2016
This has been on the go for a while, unusually - but it is very good and really interesting. Freya Stark was one woman who broke every mould and dared anything. Admirable and inspiring.
September 13, 2014
Freya Stark is the closest to a real Indiana Jones that I've encountered. Her adventures across the Middle East in the early 1930s are fascinating, with beautiful descriptions of the land, the people, and the history of the places she went. As a modern reader, it's hard not to think about the complicating factors. In particular, her archaeology is of the adventurous Indiana Jones type that often seems to create more ethical questions than it provides historical answers.
There are, I am sure, books written about her relationship to the British Empire, but the respect she receives, as a woman on her own in foreign countries, particularly ones where the role of women is fairly strictly considered, seems closely related to the powerful country that ultimately stands behind her, with it's symbols all over the passport that she occasionally wields like a combination of a shield and a magic wand.
Further, her gender seems to have allowed her the opportunity, and desire, to observe women's life among the people she visited.
Stark's writing is beautiful, and brings to life the people and places she visited. I definitely plan to read more of her works.
There are, I am sure, books written about her relationship to the British Empire, but the respect she receives, as a woman on her own in foreign countries, particularly ones where the role of women is fairly strictly considered, seems closely related to the powerful country that ultimately stands behind her, with it's symbols all over the passport that she occasionally wields like a combination of a shield and a magic wand.
Further, her gender seems to have allowed her the opportunity, and desire, to observe women's life among the people she visited.
Stark's writing is beautiful, and brings to life the people and places she visited. I definitely plan to read more of her works.
August 23, 2012
This is the story of several journeys undertaken in the early 1930s by that intrepid Englishwoman, Freya Stark. Travelling only in the presence of local guides and speaking nothing but Persian for week after week, she leads us into the high mountain country of ancient Kurdistan, Luristan and Lakistan (and possibly a few other -stans), searching for traces of ancient civilizations (as well as Bronze-age man). She follows old trails through remote villages, occasionally coming across some major work such as a ruined castle or the site of what appears to have been a large city, and recounts her meetings with village headmen, some of whom are most happy to see her and others decidedly not. One has the impression that visiting modern Iran, in which all these travels took place, would have similar difficulties. The writing is a trifle old-fashioned yet perfectly clear and if this traveller expresses at odd times what seems to be a kind of snobbishness, at others she is wonderfully human and tells of the people and places she visits with great warmth.
December 29, 2013
I'd read a biography of Freya Stark first, the excellent Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark that was a full account of Stark's life and adventures, and was curious to read something by Stark herself. The Valleys of the Assassins is the first I have read by her.
Her adventures in the Middle East, including experiencing different cultures as a lone English woman in many cases, are incredibly interesting. She traipses through the Arab world after Lawrence but while there is a largely British influence in most areas. However, the Valleys of the Assassins is an out of the way place that even the English have not headed out to, and Stark also wants to collect artifacts and map the region.
Overall I was a little disappointed by how very stiff and British this travel account is, but it's also a very unique first person perspective on a world that had been not heavily influenced, let alone seen, by outsiders.
Her adventures in the Middle East, including experiencing different cultures as a lone English woman in many cases, are incredibly interesting. She traipses through the Arab world after Lawrence but while there is a largely British influence in most areas. However, the Valleys of the Assassins is an out of the way place that even the English have not headed out to, and Stark also wants to collect artifacts and map the region.
Overall I was a little disappointed by how very stiff and British this travel account is, but it's also a very unique first person perspective on a world that had been not heavily influenced, let alone seen, by outsiders.
September 15, 2020
Sorry, this is one of the few books I couldn't get into at all; as a matter of fact, I couldn't even skim it to the end. It was written in a different time and almost in a different, shorthand sort of language. While much space and many words given to describing clothing, discussion of history was minimal. Like any travelogue, many individuals Freya met on her adventure were named and their clothing described but soon were forgotten. Many valleys, mountains, hills, plains, streams were named and, perhaps, beautifully described but I had a hard time figuring out how they were physically related (I even had Google Maps open and found them far removed from each other).
The book's back page says that Stark "writes engagingly of the nomadic peoples who inhabit the region's valleys and brings to life the stories of the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East ...." It must describe a different book because this one is none of that. In short, I gave up and put the book in my rummage sale pile.
The book's back page says that Stark "writes engagingly of the nomadic peoples who inhabit the region's valleys and brings to life the stories of the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East ...." It must describe a different book because this one is none of that. In short, I gave up and put the book in my rummage sale pile.
March 2, 2016
I ADORE Freya Stark. She inspired my own wanderlust many years ago, and always reminds me that there is so much to learn and explore.
To be honest, this book was a little tedious, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I am reading it decades after it was published. I can imagine reading it as a young woman in the 30s and my mind being completely in awe of the world that was out there.
So for Freya, as an explorer, as a traveler, and as an all around kickass lady, 5 stars. For this book, 3 stars.
To be honest, this book was a little tedious, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I am reading it decades after it was published. I can imagine reading it as a young woman in the 30s and my mind being completely in awe of the world that was out there.
So for Freya, as an explorer, as a traveler, and as an all around kickass lady, 5 stars. For this book, 3 stars.
August 6, 2021
A fascinating account by an incredible woman. Stark has a pleasant writing style with some deep reflections interspersed through the descriptions of the areas and people that she encounters through Persia in the early 1930s.
"Solitude, I reflected, is the one deep necessity of the human spirit to which adequate recognition is never given in our codes. It is looked upon as a discipline or a penance, but hardly ever as the indispensable, pleasant ingredient it is to ordinary life, and from this want of recognition come half our domestic troubles."
"Solitude, I reflected, is the one deep necessity of the human spirit to which adequate recognition is never given in our codes. It is looked upon as a discipline or a penance, but hardly ever as the indispensable, pleasant ingredient it is to ordinary life, and from this want of recognition come half our domestic troubles."
December 15, 2014
There are some pretty funny quips in this book - but overall it's just really boring. What a shame, since I'm usually pretty interested in the area she visited and she has some good insights. I just wish her travels didn't come across as drudgery day after day, and the people she travelled with as lacking in any interesting characteristics.
October 9, 2017
Should be great, but so poorly written.
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July 10, 2025Freya is an amazing woman who travelled solo in Persia (Iran & Iraq) in the 1930s. Fluent in Persian, she was able to have lively discussions with locals and talk her way out or into anything.
I was taken by surprise that her goal was grave robbing and hunting for skulls. Local tribesmen appear to be happy to assist with this as long as it was a non-belivers grave and they were paid.
She was also passionate about geography, where her details of the landscape were just wonderful.
Overall, her personality and writing are beautiful, but her ethics are very much of her time.
I was taken by surprise that her goal was grave robbing and hunting for skulls. Local tribesmen appear to be happy to assist with this as long as it was a non-belivers grave and they were paid.
She was also passionate about geography, where her details of the landscape were just wonderful.
Overall, her personality and writing are beautiful, but her ethics are very much of her time.
February 10, 2015
I learned about her by reading Lawrence Durrell's "Bitter Lemons of Cyprus". He just mentions her briefly but I was quite interested when I read her bio on wikipedia.
For me this book was amazing. She seems to have a great ability to relate to people and there are many instances where some kind of savvy was required, from simple humility and politeness to more tricky manipulations. She also does what little humanitarian aid she can, like dispensing medicines or trying to help make a splint for a broken leg. She is able to describe people and their apparent character well, whether she is praising or blaming. She has a great deal of respect for the people she meets along the way, but the various guides or helpers come in for a lot more abuse, though she seemed to respect one of them a lot. She is also happy to show these same people's good moments as well. Although most of the book is pretty concrete descriptions of the places she goes and the things she does, she does mix in some more poetic descriptions and some philosophical reflections as well as historical points which varied the material some in a nice way.
The big caveat with this book, and one that you see a fair bit in the 3 star reviews here is that it can be a bit dry and list like at times. I really like maps, and it was very clear to me quite soon after starting that it might not be too much fun if I didn't have some kind of map or visualization of where she was going. The edition I read has a couple of maps but they weren't always terribly helpful. So i immediately went on the web to start looking at satellite maps etc of where she was talking about. I ended up spending A LOT of time browsing the maps trying to connect the dots of what she was talking about.
There are several problems here. First off, transliteration is a huge problem because even if there are systems different people and maps will still do the transliteration differently. The second thing is that of course some place names have changed in the meantime. Thirdly many of the places don't have much web-presence, even if you get a hit somewhere, converting it into a spot on the map could be trying. Lastly, she can be incredibly detailed at times and really vague at others which can make it challenging. The first section of the book (northern Lorestan) was the worst in terms of being vague about where she was, but it also gave me some trouble with names I couldn't find elsewhere.
Basically, the solution I came up with was a website called mapcarta plus google earth, though I did use a couple of other geographical websites. Mapcarta is kind of crappy but it's saving grace is that it has very many name-tags on villages and geographical features. Again the transliterations would often be different but usually if you can keep oriented and you are finding multiple very likely reference points you are in the right place.
The awesome thing about google earth is that it gives you that 3dimensional feel which can often be quite obscured when looking at just the satellite images. Another amazing thing here is user uploaded photos which give another visual dimension. Also the tags on the photos sometimes gave further place name clues.
So for me using these modern resources turned the book into something of a multi-media experience. It was wonderful to be able to travel along virtually (though obviously not the same as actually being there). The other aspect of this is that of course these satellite maps are modern, so it is possible to see the development and modernization that has taken place in Iran. The obvious ones are roads, dams, and the fact that many of the areas she visited with tribespeople living in tents are now filled with settlements of permanent structures.
So, for me the book was a great time, but If you are considering reading you might want to consider how much effort to put into following along.
For me this book was amazing. She seems to have a great ability to relate to people and there are many instances where some kind of savvy was required, from simple humility and politeness to more tricky manipulations. She also does what little humanitarian aid she can, like dispensing medicines or trying to help make a splint for a broken leg. She is able to describe people and their apparent character well, whether she is praising or blaming. She has a great deal of respect for the people she meets along the way, but the various guides or helpers come in for a lot more abuse, though she seemed to respect one of them a lot. She is also happy to show these same people's good moments as well. Although most of the book is pretty concrete descriptions of the places she goes and the things she does, she does mix in some more poetic descriptions and some philosophical reflections as well as historical points which varied the material some in a nice way.
The big caveat with this book, and one that you see a fair bit in the 3 star reviews here is that it can be a bit dry and list like at times. I really like maps, and it was very clear to me quite soon after starting that it might not be too much fun if I didn't have some kind of map or visualization of where she was going. The edition I read has a couple of maps but they weren't always terribly helpful. So i immediately went on the web to start looking at satellite maps etc of where she was talking about. I ended up spending A LOT of time browsing the maps trying to connect the dots of what she was talking about.
There are several problems here. First off, transliteration is a huge problem because even if there are systems different people and maps will still do the transliteration differently. The second thing is that of course some place names have changed in the meantime. Thirdly many of the places don't have much web-presence, even if you get a hit somewhere, converting it into a spot on the map could be trying. Lastly, she can be incredibly detailed at times and really vague at others which can make it challenging. The first section of the book (northern Lorestan) was the worst in terms of being vague about where she was, but it also gave me some trouble with names I couldn't find elsewhere.
Basically, the solution I came up with was a website called mapcarta plus google earth, though I did use a couple of other geographical websites. Mapcarta is kind of crappy but it's saving grace is that it has very many name-tags on villages and geographical features. Again the transliterations would often be different but usually if you can keep oriented and you are finding multiple very likely reference points you are in the right place.
The awesome thing about google earth is that it gives you that 3dimensional feel which can often be quite obscured when looking at just the satellite images. Another amazing thing here is user uploaded photos which give another visual dimension. Also the tags on the photos sometimes gave further place name clues.
So for me using these modern resources turned the book into something of a multi-media experience. It was wonderful to be able to travel along virtually (though obviously not the same as actually being there). The other aspect of this is that of course these satellite maps are modern, so it is possible to see the development and modernization that has taken place in Iran. The obvious ones are roads, dams, and the fact that many of the areas she visited with tribespeople living in tents are now filled with settlements of permanent structures.
So, for me the book was a great time, but If you are considering reading you might want to consider how much effort to put into following along.
April 26, 2016
I did quite like this book but it was a bit of a slog to read. Honestly, I think a lot of it was my own issue rather than any fault with the book. This is a book that is very firmly set in the 'travel writing' genre, which I'm finding is one that I have a hard time with.
This book challenges the reader to take it's time; with the language, with the absorption of the information presented, and with the story presented. A lot of location names and unfamiliar-to-me language is used, and while I was able to cobble on due context, I'm not sure this was the best book for me to have started reading Freya Stark's work with. It also reads, very much, like a part 5 of a 9 part serialized work, or like volume 6 of a set of journals. Nothing is inherently wrong with that, but the beginning and endings are a bit jarring as there isn't really much in the way of context or a firm wrap-up.
Still, the book itself is a really fascinating read. Partially because this is a woman, traveling basically alone, and her observations and interpretations of cultures in which she was not raised. It's also very much a snapshot of a time and place that were in, and partially remain in transition. Honestly, the one thing that bothers me the most - but which is also a function of the travel writing genre, somewhat - is the lack of FREYA that we get. Her personality is frustratingly present but distant. Not surprising given the general shade she and everyone else tends to throw at women in this book. She sets herself slightly apart from her own gender as a necessity and in doing so must distance herself from fully sharing her own thoughts. Well, that's my interpretation. Still, I would have liked to see more of HER rather than formality for form's sake.
That said, it was a good, if challenging read.
This book challenges the reader to take it's time; with the language, with the absorption of the information presented, and with the story presented. A lot of location names and unfamiliar-to-me language is used, and while I was able to cobble on due context, I'm not sure this was the best book for me to have started reading Freya Stark's work with. It also reads, very much, like a part 5 of a 9 part serialized work, or like volume 6 of a set of journals. Nothing is inherently wrong with that, but the beginning and endings are a bit jarring as there isn't really much in the way of context or a firm wrap-up.
Still, the book itself is a really fascinating read. Partially because this is a woman, traveling basically alone, and her observations and interpretations of cultures in which she was not raised. It's also very much a snapshot of a time and place that were in, and partially remain in transition. Honestly, the one thing that bothers me the most - but which is also a function of the travel writing genre, somewhat - is the lack of FREYA that we get. Her personality is frustratingly present but distant. Not surprising given the general shade she and everyone else tends to throw at women in this book. She sets herself slightly apart from her own gender as a necessity and in doing so must distance herself from fully sharing her own thoughts. Well, that's my interpretation. Still, I would have liked to see more of HER rather than formality for form's sake.
That said, it was a good, if challenging read.
September 16, 2013
Reading Valley of the Assasins which describes the travels of this brave woman Freya Stark, as she travels through "Persia" in the 1930s, one has to admire her courage and great sense of adventure. Riding either horses or donkeys she explores first the region of Luristan then the Valley of the Assasins. This name comes from the leader Hasan-i-Sabbah (1071), whose name "Hasan" became corrupted to Assasin, due to his habit of drugging and then killing his enemies in his garden. Much of the writing is engaging as the travelers never know what reception they are going to receive from the villagers and other travelers they encounter. However much of the writing becomes repetitive descriptions of riding over one mountain after another,down steep winding trails into valleys with scattered villages. Realizing that Stark was one of the first European travelers to describe this area one tries to be patient. Her trip was sponsored by the Geographical Society so she had a serious mission. She is also constantly searching for historical artifacts even to the extent of grave robbing. Her rationale (that if she doesn't find the loot others will) seems flimsy to a modern reader, but perhaps was accepted at the time. While I enjoyed most of this book, it does not compare to other travelogues from women explorers (for example Isabelle Eberhardt).
January 2, 2015
She was an amazing person, Freya Stark. She traveled by herself throughout Iran and Iraq in the 30s, making maps, meeting the locals, and looking for bits and pieces of history. She traveled by mule and on foot, using local guides, and every night she’d arrive unexpectedly at a some nomad’s tent and be invited to dine and given a place to sleep (often under the stars).
It sounds pretty glamorous, and it really is remarkable. But I have to say that this book was a bit hard to get through. Geography was her passion, and it shows, but the book is really weighted down with minute descriptions of each hill, pass, river, torrent, defile, bank, and cliff. Everything is described from all angles, and many of the paragraphs are crowded with local place names.
She was a good writer, and when she directs her attention to the people and their customs, things get really interesting. Occasionally her descriptions of landscapes are quite beautiful. But often it’s tedious. So I would only recommend this book to someone who knows the area well and wants to revisit every nook and cranny of it.
It sounds pretty glamorous, and it really is remarkable. But I have to say that this book was a bit hard to get through. Geography was her passion, and it shows, but the book is really weighted down with minute descriptions of each hill, pass, river, torrent, defile, bank, and cliff. Everything is described from all angles, and many of the paragraphs are crowded with local place names.
She was a good writer, and when she directs her attention to the people and their customs, things get really interesting. Occasionally her descriptions of landscapes are quite beautiful. But often it’s tedious. So I would only recommend this book to someone who knows the area well and wants to revisit every nook and cranny of it.
November 25, 2017
This is a fascinating read for several reasons.
Stark went wherever she pleased and however she wanted, regardless of what the world expected from a single woman in the 1930s, only capitulating occasionally and only to a point, out of politeness and respect for cultures other than her own. It's refreshing and inspiring to read about a woman like her and to know that she existed. Courage and independence like hers are contagious.
This book is also fascinating in how clearly it demonstrates the British Imperialist attitude we only really hear about today. There is an arrogance and air of superiority and entitlement that hangs from Stark throughout; and as respectful of local customs as she outwardly is, reading from the perspective of 2017 there are some things I found horrifying to think of having happened - like all the grave robbing. It's jarring and depressing to think that this was the norm "back then.
I don't have the exact copy listed here on GoodReads; mine is from 1946 so I'd be interested to know what, if anything, has been altered for the newer additions and I'm going to keep an eye out for a newer copy. I'll definitely be on the hunt for more of her work.
Stark went wherever she pleased and however she wanted, regardless of what the world expected from a single woman in the 1930s, only capitulating occasionally and only to a point, out of politeness and respect for cultures other than her own. It's refreshing and inspiring to read about a woman like her and to know that she existed. Courage and independence like hers are contagious.
This book is also fascinating in how clearly it demonstrates the British Imperialist attitude we only really hear about today. There is an arrogance and air of superiority and entitlement that hangs from Stark throughout; and as respectful of local customs as she outwardly is, reading from the perspective of 2017 there are some things I found horrifying to think of having happened - like all the grave robbing. It's jarring and depressing to think that this was the norm "back then.
I don't have the exact copy listed here on GoodReads; mine is from 1946 so I'd be interested to know what, if anything, has been altered for the newer additions and I'm going to keep an eye out for a newer copy. I'll definitely be on the hunt for more of her work.
March 25, 2018
A single woman, at the turn of the last century, travelling unknown, unmapped lands in search of adventures, geography and history, and essentially to carve out a career out of something that was quite unheard of, for the women of that time. This book is a collection of her experiences, jotted down in her journal/diary from her travels through the inhospitable stretches of Luristan and Persia. Stunning travel narrative aside, it is not much of a page-turner. As was the norms for books of the past, it is bogged down by too many genealogical descriptions. But nonetheless, the tales of this bullheaded adventurer's travels to rob graves and hunt for skulls across Central Asia are stuff that is truly fascinating but seldom spoken about in classrooms. What stood out for me was that she never lost touch with humanity and that she was largely sympathetic towards the people she met. An inspiration to generations of girls to come, even though this book wasn't really up to my expectations, I salute her for that dogged willpower and spirit.
June 11, 2012
i didn't enjoy stark's writing as much as thesinger's. i had really been looking forward to reading this after seeing a review of a new biography about stark. her life was really interesting, being english, growing up in italy, and then later traveling on her own in the middle east after studying arabic in lebanon. the reviewer recommended this book, saying it was the best among the several she had written.
i suppose one could say her life was more interesting than her writing. she writes, at times, purely for the english audience, comparing a scene to a certain town or aspect of english life that the non-english reader in the 21st century might not understand. she often tells rather than shows the reader what life was life in 1930s persia. probably the biography is the way to go.
i suppose one could say her life was more interesting than her writing. she writes, at times, purely for the english audience, comparing a scene to a certain town or aspect of english life that the non-english reader in the 21st century might not understand. she often tells rather than shows the reader what life was life in 1930s persia. probably the biography is the way to go.
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January 30, 2013I find I don't really like this person that much. But I keep reading her, because I admire her sheer guts and intellect, her uncanny ability to size up personalities, perceive truth and falsehood, bargain, barter, and schmooze. Her endless energy and interest. Her absolute fearlessness. And most of all, the way she puts all this together to get exactly what she wants. She would make a fantastic politician--seriously, make this girl Secretary of State. But that, I suppose, would violate her code of traveling solely for pleasure.
Also enjoyed: when people ask what you're reading, answering, "Freya Stark, who traveled by herself around backcountry Iran in the 30s for her own amusement." People's faces are priceless.
Also enjoyed: when people ask what you're reading, answering, "Freya Stark, who traveled by herself around backcountry Iran in the 30s for her own amusement." People's faces are priceless.
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