The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut [Mass Market Paperback]

In The Southern Gates of Arabia, the remarkable Freya Stark who, alas, died in 1993, has brought to life not only the places she travelled through but also the people she met, as she followed the ancient frankincense routes of the Hadhramaut Valley in 1934. Indeed, 1934 has never seemed so present - the descriptions of the landscape, the peoples and her living arrangements, are unsurpassed. She writes (as the New York Times Book Review says) ' in the great tradition of Charles Doughty and T E Lawrence'.

I did not want the book to end - equally brilliant is her 'In the Valleys of the Assassins'.

Highly recommended. Barbara Chaffey

A classic account that all interested in that part of the world should read. Unfortunately some of the notices on Amazon indicate that the author is Tim Mackintosh-Smith. The author, of course, is Freya Stark. Tim M-S has merely written a forward. I hope Amazon will correct their site

Once before in recorded history "the West" had an obsession with a product of the Arabian Peninsula - then it was frankincense. This was burned in the funeral rites of the deceased, particularly in the Roman Empire, and for the rich, it was often burned in significant quantities. Supplying this need made the territories of South Arabia, where it is grown, and the cities along the trade routes, quite wealthy. In particular the town of Shabwa, a key point on the route, where it turned from the westward direction, and started north to Gaza, enjoyed the benefits of monopoly control. This was the ultimate destination of Ms. Stark when she undertook her journey.

The year was 1934; it was the winter months, when so many Westerner travelers wisely choose to travel, with the inadvertent consequence of projecting a more pleasant quality to the life in the area. Ms. Stark had inherited some money, and was thus able to give up her "day job." She established her reputation traveling and writing about the "Valley of the Assassins" in western Persia. Her portrait of South Arabia, principally the Hadhramaut comes just before the discovery of the second obsession - oil. And it is a memorable one, since her erudition is stunning, and her descriptive prose original and incisive. The book was written for the educated class of her time, and assumes a fluency in French, German and Latin; she does graciously provide translations for the Arabic.

She traveled alone, as a single woman, a remarkable feat in the Arab world, rarely duplicated. Her journey began in the British "protectorate" of Aden, where she took a steamer to Mukulla. From there she traveled the 150-200 miles inland to the Wadi Hadhramaut. Unlike the travels of Dervla Murphy or Wilfred Thesiger, she traveled in the milieu of her social class, being passed along from one tribal sheikh to another. Her fluency in Arabic enabled substantial interactions with her "handlers," plus, unlike the male travelers, she had access to the women in the "harem." Once in the Hadhramaut she traveled by car - it was just the beginnings of their use - there were no roads, and they all had to be packed into the Wadi, disassembled, by camels. She was able to visit the classic cities of Shibam, Sewun, and Tarim, benefiting from the recent truce among the tribes.

Illness, which she originally thought was malaria, but proved to be angina pectoris and dyspepsia, forced her to forego her ultimate goal. The R.A.F. airlifted her back to Aden, probably saving her life. In the appendix she is dazzling in her summation of the historical sources of knowledge of the ancient Incense Road.

Her descriptive passages, of the topography, the botany, or human features and clothing are a major strength, but she can also suddenly shift into philosophical insights, certainly as valid today as then. Consider: "...far less are we happy to give our lives for finance, however clothed in names of honour. But for a selfless cause, for some vision built out into the misty future of mankind, people will die as they have always died, wherever the penalty. They are led astray by will o' the wisps, charlatans, pressmen and dictators; these have the peace-lover denounced and watched against..."

"The fish swimming in water," might be the best defense for her lack of comment on the existing world order, for example, why should Britain have made Aden a protectorate, what was the actual role of those airbases scattered around the rest of the Yemen, and the impact of the Great Depression on her own life, and those of the other citizens. It just was the existing "inertial reference frame" from which to observe the "natives', by in large, with sympathy.

Over 70 years later it remains a remarkable book, to be read for many reasons, including obtaining a view of the roots of the Osama bin Laden family.

(Note: Review first published at Amazon, USA, on September 21, 2008)