Ebook Download The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels (Modern Library (Paperback)), by Freya Stark
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The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels (Modern Library (Paperback)), by Freya Stark
Ebook Download The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels (Modern Library (Paperback)), by Freya Stark
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Amazon.com Review
First published in 1934, Freya Stark's classic tale of her travels through Persia has been reprinted once again and is just as much a gem now as when first published. At the age of 37, Stark shocked her fellow Brits by moving to Baghdad, befriending the locals, studying Arabic and the Koran, and then setting out on expeditions to remote and uncharted areas of the Islamic world by foot, donkey, camel, and car. With her fascination for secret Islamic societies, she resolved to travel to the former home of the Cult of the Assassins and to locate an ancient fortress described by Marco Polo. (The founder of the cult inspired his recruits to murder through the use of hashish, hence their name Hashishin, from which we get assassin.) There was only one problem: she couldn't find the valley on her map. Intrepid and indefatigable, she found a guide to lead her across the empty Persian plains and crested mountain ranges (Stark leaping like a mountain goat while her guide huffed behind) into the practically impregnable valley. There she found the castle ruins covered with wild tulips and surrounded by breathtaking views of the Elbruz Mountains. While there, Stark charted the first accurate maps of the region. Stark also used her charm and her understanding of Persian ways to infiltrate Luristan, a dangerous and forbidden place where she hunted for Neolithic bronzes (by persuading the chief of police to help her loot graves) and searched for buried treasure. The Lurs, a mountainous tribe, were infamous for murder and thievery, but she found them "as cheerful a lot of villains as you can wish to meet, and delighted with us for being, as they said, brave enough to come among them." The Lurs were consistently generous hosts, but thought nothing of raiding her luggage while she slept (stealing being their national pastime and hence nothing to get upset about). While Stark began as an obscure and idiosyncratic adventurer, she was ultimately backed by the Royal Geographic Society, was considered one of the best adventure writers of the century, and even was knighted by the queen of England. With her lively voice and natural perceptiveness she painted a picture of a fascinating world inhabited by charming bandits and armed tribesman now largely gone. While she did it for her own pleasure, in the end, the pleasure is ours. --Lesley Reed
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From Library Journal
Published in 1936 and 1934, respectively, these books brought Stark to the forefront of adventure travel writing. In Southern Gates, she relates her attempt to locate the lost city of Shabwe somewhere in Arabia. Although the city eluded herAit was discovered later by othersAthe trip was far from uneventful. Assassins finds the intrepid narrator in the Middle East on the Iraq/Iran border moving among its people, including the band of terrorists called the Lords of Alamut, who were unknown outside of the territory. Both these editions include new introductions by Stark's biographer, Jane Fletcher Geniesse. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product details
Series: Modern Library (Paperback)
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Modern Library; 1st edition (July 24, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375757538
ISBN-13: 978-0375757532
Product Dimensions:
5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.8 out of 5 stars
28 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#389,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This book reads on several different levels. At minimum, it is a travelogue through the wilder country of northern Persia in the early 1930s, largely roadless and widely inhabited by bandits. Of more significance, we meet the author, a single British woman adventuring alone and depending upon her wits, humor, and understanding of human nature to gain access where she is officially not permitted to travel. The author’s obvious humanity and charm are everywhere evident in this narrative and are a delight. Freya Stark paints wonderful portraits of officious police, old shepherds, narcissistic nomads, and her several native guides. Most poignant are the pictures of women, often no more than property of their husbands, and of children who are sometimes greedy, sometimes ill, and often starving at a time of drought in the land. The landscape, the archeology, and the flora are all part of the story. Every reader will find something that engages them, and most everyone will find passages or pages that they choose to skim quickly. The most curious readers will be rewarded from beginning to end.
boy was this good! Just what I wanted..it is so amazing to think of this woman traipsing about in the deserts of iran..I wanted to be there with her (also to speak a bit of Persian). Oh that the world was still like this. We tend to think of all our troubles as being modern and of course exacerbated by the divvying up by the British but she recounts of the tribal divisions that still cause rancor today and effect the movement toward modernity..if that is even a worthwhile endeavor. And lyrical! The woman is not only super woman she is a poet..i will read the others!
I first read an earlier edition of The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels (Modern Library Paperbacks) nearly 40 years ago while working in Tehran. At that time, it was the primary inspiration for a one-day excursion into the Alamut region with a few friends in a '66 Pontiac convertible, executed with all of the carefree abandon of Ms. Stark. I was delighted to find this reprint in 2001 [as well as The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut (Modern Library Paperbacks)] as I searched for greater understanding of the people of the Middle East in the wake of September 11th, just as she had successfully done throughout her lifetime of exploration and writing about these ancient civilizations.The real enjoyment of reading about her colorful adventures comes from her insights into the region as a journalist and the origins of the people, along with her vivid descriptions of life and her dry wit. When you think of this Western woman, often traveling alone, moving throughout the Muslim world of the 1930s [one that hadn't changed in centuries] you become instantly in awe. By simply reading at random any passage that she wrote, you are turned into the traveling companion of this amazing lady and shown those people and their customs in lands that are now forever lost to us, with Stark's compelling words being the only exception. Her true gifts to the world are these wonderful sojourns into the past.Bob Magnant is the author of The Last Transition... - a fact-based novel about Iran, Iraq and the Middle East...
I agree with much of what is said in the reviews below: Stark's travelogues aren't to be read in bed if you have any intention of keeping your eyes open for more than a dozen pages or so. Her writing is clear and concise, but not scintillating by any means. What's of interest in this book is less the style of writing and more the travels themselves. Here was a single woman in the 1930s traveling in an area of the world virtually unknown to Westerners, making the radical choices, for instance, to study the Koran and live with the locals. She was a true radical of her own time who dared to tread places that Marco Polo didn't even approach, despite his (in)famous claims to the contrary.As for the criticism of the lack of maps in the book that some of the reviewers here have brought up -- well, that may be a criticism directed at the publisher, but it shouldn't be aimed at Stark. The maps that are in the book are the ones that Stark made herself during her travels and handed over to the Royal Geographic Society, and are considered the first Western maps of the area. In my own research, I was in contact with the Society repeatedly, trying to procure additional maps of the Elburz Mountain region for background information on Vladimir Bartol's ALAMUT, an historical novel based on the most famous Valley of the Assassin resident, Hasan ibn Sabbah. Frankly, Stark's maps are some of the few that actually exist, even to this day. The area of her travels -- perhaps aside from CIA maps that we mere mortals are not privy to -- has not been mapped very well. Spend a few hours scouring antiquarian map collectors and see what you come up with. True, it would have been helpful for the publisher to add some basic "Rand McNally" type overviews of her route, but a criticism of Stark on this point is completely beside the point and neglects to recognize her true contribution to the literature.
Like jeffergray, I wish there were maps and would agree that the title was somewhat misleading. At times, I found myself confused by some of the historical references since they were cursory and seemed to assume a good knowledge of the history of the Middle East. Perhaps I need to go back to school...On the other hand, I found this to be a wonderful narrative of a trip to a land that most people will never see, a visit to cultures that are most likely gone in today's world, and, most interestingly, the story of a woman in an area in which women never venture far from their homes. Her descriptions of the details of the countryside and the lives of the people she meets are exquisite and conjure up images despite the absence of pictures. Because of the quality of the writing, it is an easy and fairly quick read.
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