![]() 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. ![]() 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 be documented for the Royal Geographical Society. 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. Instantly recognised as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins firmly established Freya Stark (1883-1993), as one of her generation's most intrepid explorers. ![]() ![]() Freya Stark moved to Baghdad in her late thirties, learned Arabic and began exploring modern-day Iran and Iraq during the late 1920s and 1930s, making maps and searching for archaeological finds and bona fide buried treasure. Not price clipped (price on spine 6/-), small previous owner's inscription on ffep, some faint spotting to endpapers, internally clean tight and square, overall a reasonable copy, printed on thin wartime paper. The Valleys of the Assassins is a tale of adventure, archaeology and sheer bloody-minded gumption. ![]() Edge wear, chipping, closed tears and small loss to top and bottom of jacket and spine, corners and folds rubbed with small loss, spine browned, some overall time staining. First published in 1934, this is an eighth impression (third small 'pocket' impression on thin paper) of 1946. ![]()
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