The Southern Gates of Arabia

– A Journey in the Hadharamaut –

“‘ I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense …’ So sings the poet in the Song of Solomon. And so in 1935, yielding to her passion for Islamic culture and for adventure, Freya Stark set out to explore the wild, desert mountains, the gorgeous palaces and dust-hazed cities of Hadhramaut, and travelled the Incense Route inland from the southern shores of Arabia.

Along the way, she encountered Sultans and Beduin tribespeople, the harem women of Do’an, the Mansab of Meshed, cheerful distributor of peppermints, cloves and chewing gum, and Hasan, overheard descriving her as  ‘one of the Sultanas of England’.

A pioneering book and now a travel classic, The Southern Gates of Arabia is as rich in charm and humour as it is in scholarship. …”

Contents: Introduction: The Incense Road, The Arabian Coast, Landing, The Beduin Camp at the Gate of Makalla, Life in the City, I Leave for the Interior, The Mansab of Thile, The Way to the Jol, The Beduin of Kor Saiban, The Jol, Nights on the Jol, Life in Do’an, Khuraiba and Robat, Sickness in the Fortress of Masna’a, The Ride to Hajarain, The Mansab of Meshed, Into the Wadi Hadhramaut, Shibam, Sewun, Tarim, Departure from Friends, Into Wadi ‘Amd, Huraidha in ‘Amd, ‘Andal, Breakdown in Shibam, Visitors, Shabwa Renounced, Flight from the Valley, Notes on the Southern Incense Route of Arabia, Bibliography, Index