Publication
Modern Library (2001), Edition: 1st, 320 pages
Original publication date
1934
Collections
Awards
Description
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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member yarb
Narratives of several journeys in remote areas of the Middle East, principally the Persia-Iraq border region, in the 1930's. Armed with the self-assurance of empire, but also innate savvy, cunning, and fluency in various local languages, the author explores the tribal hill-country of Luristan, and
It's a remarkable insight into a people (peoples really) and place which most of us know nothing about. As a Western woman she is able to report from both sides of the patriarchal societies with whom she stays. But I was frustrated by how little humanity she gives us: what there is is memorable, like the smart young tribesman with big plans to make it in Tehran, or the sorrowful first wife of a polygamous chief now supplanted by a younger model, but the focus is on geographical description - map-making, really - archaeology, and Stark's daily camp routine.
The prose is mostly functional, again in keeping with Stark's semi-hidden mapping agenda, but always precise and there are some nice descriptive passages. I think as long as you don't go into this expecting a modern travelogue a la Chatwin or Theroux, you won't be disappointed. Its uniqueness alone is enough to recommend it. I'll read the acclaimed biography of Stark, "Passionate Nomad" by Jane Fletcher sooner or later. She led a pretty incredible life.
Show More
the area of northern Persia which was home to the titular assassins first described by Marco Polo, outwitting and deceiving unfriendly officials/police as necessary. She is motivated partly by her own curiosity and wanderlust, and partly by a never fully explained commission from the British Foreign Office (I think) which likely relates to mapping and general intelligence gathering but apparently also includes a bona fide treasure hunt.It's a remarkable insight into a people (peoples really) and place which most of us know nothing about. As a Western woman she is able to report from both sides of the patriarchal societies with whom she stays. But I was frustrated by how little humanity she gives us: what there is is memorable, like the smart young tribesman with big plans to make it in Tehran, or the sorrowful first wife of a polygamous chief now supplanted by a younger model, but the focus is on geographical description - map-making, really - archaeology, and Stark's daily camp routine.
The prose is mostly functional, again in keeping with Stark's semi-hidden mapping agenda, but always precise and there are some nice descriptive passages. I think as long as you don't go into this expecting a modern travelogue a la Chatwin or Theroux, you won't be disappointed. Its uniqueness alone is enough to recommend it. I'll read the acclaimed biography of Stark, "Passionate Nomad" by Jane Fletcher sooner or later. She led a pretty incredible life.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LynnB
Having read about Freya Stark (Jane Fletcher Geniesse's "Passionate Nomad"), I decided to read something Ms. Stark herself had written. There were snippets of her writing in the biography to whet my appetite....
Ms. Stark is a very good writer: "This is a great moment, when you see, however distant,
I especially enjoyed her writings about the people she met on her travels through Persia. I did get a bit bored during detailed geographic descriptions, which I think she included as part of her work for the Royal Geographic Society.
Freya Stark is a good writer and a fascinating woman. Well worth reading.
Ms. Stark is a very good writer: "This is a great moment, when you see, however distant,
Show More
the goal of your wandering. The thing which has been living in our imagination suddenly becomes part of the tangible world."I especially enjoyed her writings about the people she met on her travels through Persia. I did get a bit bored during detailed geographic descriptions, which I think she included as part of her work for the Royal Geographic Society.
Freya Stark is a good writer and a fascinating woman. Well worth reading.
Show Less
LibraryThing member gibbon
The valleys of the assassins are in Luristan on the border between what was then Persia (now Iran) and Iraq. Few Western travellers and no western women had dared to travel in these bandit-ridden hills before Dame Freya made her epic treasure-hunts in 1930, 1931 and 1932. The writing is superb and
Show More
the scenes have if anything gained in interest from the passage of time. It was recommended by Bernard Berenson in his introductory letter to Maraini's "Secret Tibet", which was why I bought it. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheSmarch
I must respectfully disagree with the (no doubt more capable) reviewers. This book was a chore to read. It is #91 on the National Geographic Society's list of 100 best adventure books (I'm being OCD and doing the list backwards). The book tells of her travels in Iran and Iraq in the early 1930s.
She does occasionally turn a memorable phrase, but not nearly often enough to make reading the entire book worthwhile. I will note that I do not like naked travelogues such as this one. I would have preferred lively stories about what she saw and who she met. Too often she would say she had a fascinating conversation with a local, but then not say what it was about. She was doing some sort of archeology, but what I'm not exactly sure. Looking for old daggers and bones? Never really clear.
Again, the book is not exactly "terrible", but I'm confident I will never have a hankerin' to read it again.
Show More
Her odyssey was genuinely remarkable for a woman in those countries and at that time. And yet the book was boring. My complete unfamiliarity with the area in question made me just glide over the names of places she visited. She relates a few interesting anecdotes, but mostly the book is about how she went from point A to point B and didn't get to see what she came to see.She does occasionally turn a memorable phrase, but not nearly often enough to make reading the entire book worthwhile. I will note that I do not like naked travelogues such as this one. I would have preferred lively stories about what she saw and who she met. Too often she would say she had a fascinating conversation with a local, but then not say what it was about. She was doing some sort of archeology, but what I'm not exactly sure. Looking for old daggers and bones? Never really clear.
Again, the book is not exactly "terrible", but I'm confident I will never have a hankerin' to read it again.
Show Less
LibraryThing member billsearth
This book is the author's description af several journeys around 1930 into the rural parts of what isnow Iran and Iraq. These journeys are described as verywild, traveling on aths, not roads and dealing with prevepant theft among both friendly people and enemies.
The author is very interested intwo
This woman enjoys penetrating remote dangerous places iand in the stories is houded by the "police" constantly for going outside areas open to travellers and for attempting to rob graves, which she admits, but still adds interest to the reading.
The rural landscape, especially at highere elevations is described as beautiful. The culture of the herding semi-nomadic people sounds very interesting and far-removed from our modern culture today.
The author is very interested intwo
Show More
aspects of the travels, the scenery and the historically based culture of the native people. These interests show through in the descriptions and elevate the book to a very good read. The author also is very interested in keeping an accurate log and map of her travels, although maps are almost nonexistent in her publication.This woman enjoys penetrating remote dangerous places iand in the stories is houded by the "police" constantly for going outside areas open to travellers and for attempting to rob graves, which she admits, but still adds interest to the reading.
The rural landscape, especially at highere elevations is described as beautiful. The culture of the herding semi-nomadic people sounds very interesting and far-removed from our modern culture today.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mldavis2
I read this book as a monthly discussion group assignment. It is an interesting account written in 1937 of the travels of British author Freya Stark, a lone traveler, archaeologist and geographer. Stark documents her travels in Persia (Iran) by mule and foot, mapping the terrain and searching for
Show More
bronze age remnants of civilizations. Her descriptions of the remote villages and peoples she encounters as well as the country are well done and it is interesting reading, although names of towns are unfamiliar and many have either ceased to exist or have been renamed. The book brings out the humanity and poverty of the Iranian back country inhabitants. Show Less
LibraryThing member shawse
I first heard of Freya Stark on the "Stuff You Missed in History Class" Podcast. I thought she sounded like a very compelling individual with some very interesting stories to tell. Reading this book confirmed that. She has a wonderfully descriptive narrative style that I greatly enjoyed. Most
Show More
passages were good but some were remarkably beautiful. Show Less
LibraryThing member theonearmedcrab
Another woman traveler, but some time ago, was Freya Stark, who wrote “The Valleys of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels” (1934), about exactly that: her travels in Persia as a single woman. Her’s is a detailed account of the places she visits, in the meantime updating existing maps and
Show More
adding new features. Entertaining reading, mostly for the descriptions of life in Iran in those days, in the villages she passes through, with her small, but dedicated team, who become like characters in her book, or in the company of a larger caravan. Everywhere, she is a unique appearance, a woman alone, and a Western woman at that, who generates lots of interesting reactions, from officials as well as the nomads she encounters. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rdra1962
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
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!
Show More
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!
Show Less
LibraryThing member briandrewz
This was a bit difficult to get through. Freya Stark, who was a powerhouse in the world of Middle Eastern affairs and travels during much of her life, presents us with a book about her travels in Persia. I'm sure that had I read this when it was originally published I would've given it higher
Also, I felt like Freya would start out a section by building up this splendid idea of what the trip would be like, where she would go, and what she would discover. By the end of the segment, we find that she gave up entirely due to one reason or another. This was an extreme let-down and anti-climax. I did like hearing some of the stories told to her by some of those she came in contact with, particularly stories and legends surrounding King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
I have another book to read by Freya Stark, but after this one, I'm not sure I want to delve into it quite yet.
Show More
marks. But, reading it in 2022, I was honestly bored. This boredom was magnified by a complete lack of photos. It's hard to get a sense of what she saw, as so much of one place in her writings resembles the next. There are a couple of old hand-drawn maps, which, I must confess, were of no value to me, the reader. Also, I felt like Freya would start out a section by building up this splendid idea of what the trip would be like, where she would go, and what she would discover. By the end of the segment, we find that she gave up entirely due to one reason or another. This was an extreme let-down and anti-climax. I did like hearing some of the stories told to her by some of those she came in contact with, particularly stories and legends surrounding King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
I have another book to read by Freya Stark, but after this one, I'm not sure I want to delve into it quite yet.
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0375757538 / 9780375757532
Physical description
320 p.; 5.2 inches
Pages
320