Freya Stark facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Freya Stark
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Portrait by Herbert Arnould Olivier (1923), National Portrait Gallery, London
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| Born | 31 January 1893 Paris, France
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| Died | 9 May 1993 (aged 100) Asolo, Italy
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| Nationality | British, Italian |
| Occupation | Explorer, travel writer |
Dame Freya Madeline Stark (born January 31, 1893 – died May 9, 1993) was an amazing Anglo-Italian explorer and writer. She wrote over 20 books about her adventures. Many of her books were about her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Freya Stark was one of the first non-Arab people to explore the southern Arabian Desert. Her exciting journeys and detailed writings made her famous. She shared her unique experiences with the world.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Freya Stark was born in Paris, France, on January 31, 1893. Her parents were artists studying there. Her mother, Flora, had a mix of European backgrounds. Her father, Robert, was an English painter.
Freya spent much of her childhood in northern Italy. Her father's friend, Pen Browning, owned houses in Asolo, Italy. Freya's grandmother also lived nearby in Genoa.
When Freya was nine, she received a copy of One Thousand and One Nights. This book made her very interested in the Middle East. She was often sick as a child and stayed indoors. Reading became her favorite activity. She loved reading French books, especially by Alexandre Dumas. She also taught herself Latin.
A serious accident happened when she was thirteen. Her hair got caught in a machine at a factory in Italy. This accident tore her scalp and damaged her right ear. She spent four months in the hospital for skin grafts. Her face was left with scars. For the rest of her life, she wore hats or bonnets to cover these scars.
At age thirty, Freya decided to study languages at university. She wanted to escape her difficult life as a flower farmer in Italy. Her professor suggested Icelandic, but Freya chose to study Arabic and later Persian. She studied at Bedford College, London and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Both are part of the University of London.
First Journeys and Books
One can only really travel if one lets oneself go and takes what every place brings without trying to turn it into a healthy private pattern of one's own and I suppose that is the difference between travel and tourism.
During World War I, Freya Stark became a VAD nurse. She worked with the British Red Cross in Italy. Her sister, Vera, sadly died in 1926. Freya wrote that Vera couldn't live life her own way. Freya decided she would not let that happen to her. Soon after, she began her travels.
In November 1927, Freya visited Asolo again. Later that month, she sailed to Beirut, Lebanon. This is where her Eastern adventures began. She first stayed in Lebanon, then in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq was a British protectorate at the time.
On one trip, she secretly traveled by donkey with a guide and another English woman. They kept their journey quiet because Syria and Lebanon were controlled by France. The French government was strict and limited travel. They traveled at night and used hidden country paths. Even so, French Army officers caught them. They thought the women were spies but released them after three days. After this trip, Freya wrote about the harsh French rule in an English magazine.
By 1931, Freya had completed three risky trips into western Iran. Parts of this area had never been seen by Westerners. She found the famous Valleys of the Assassins (Hashashins). She wrote about these explorations in her book The Valleys of the Assassins (1934). For her work, she received the Royal Geographical Society's Back Award in 1933.
In 1934, Freya sailed to Aden to start a new adventure. She wanted to follow the ancient frankincense trade route in the Hadhramaut. This was a remote area in southern Arabia. Few Western explorers had gone there, and none as far as she planned. Her goal was to reach Shabwa, an ancient city. People believed it was once the capital of the Queen of Sheba.
However, Freya became very ill during the trip. She caught measles and dysentery. She had to be flown to a British hospital in Aden. She never reached Shabwa, but she traveled widely and wrote many stories. She also returned to the region for more trips. She published her experiences in three books: The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936), Seen In The Hadhramaut (1938), and A Winter in Arabia (1940). The Royal Geographical Society awarded her the Founder's Gold Medal for her travels and writings.
World War II Efforts
In 1939, Freya Stark was in her mid-forties. She offered her help to the British Ministry of Information. Because of her experience in the Middle East, they sent her to Yemen. Her job was to share information supporting Britain. She even showed films, even though Yemen's rulers were strict Muslims who disliked images of people and animals.
After two months in Yemen and Aden, she moved to Cairo, Egypt. In June 1940, she started a small group where she discussed the British cause over tea. Soon, more and more Egyptian students joined these talks. The discussions grew to include the war and its effects on Egypt.
These talks became the start of the Ikhwan al Hurriya (Brotherhood of Freedom). This group aimed to convince Arabs to support the Allies or stay neutral. As the Brotherhood grew, it split into smaller groups. This kept the number of members in each group to ten or less. Freya traveled all over Egypt for this work. She often spoke for up to 10 hours a day. She wrote about these wartime experiences in Letters from Syria (1942) and East is West (1945).
In April 1941, Freya visited Iraq. She was stuck inside the British Embassy during an attempted coup. After this, the British Ambassador asked her to start a branch of the Ikhwan al Hurriya in Iraq. Freya agreed and spent the next two years there, sharing British information.
In 1943, Freya went on an official tour of British Mandate of Palestine. She gave speeches about limiting Jewish migration to Palestine. This made the global Jewish community upset. Freya felt she was not against Jewish people. She simply believed that Arab agreement should be considered before large migrations. These speeches are seen as her most debated work during WWII.
After the War: More Travels and Books
After she married in 1947, Freya stopped writing about travel for a while. Instead, she published a collection of essays called Perseus in the Wind (1948). She also wrote three books about her own life: Traveller's Prelude (1950), Beyond Euphrates. Autobiography 1928–1933 (1951), and The Coast of Incense. Autobiography 1933–1939 (1953).
After her marriage ended, Freya started traveling again. Her first big trips after the war were in Turkey. These journeys inspired her books Ionia a Quest (1954), The Lycian Shore (1956), Alexander's Path (1958), and Riding to the Tigris (1959).
She then continued her life story with Dust in the Lion's Paw. Autobiography 1939–1946 (1961). She also published a history book, Rome on the Euphrates: The Story of a Frontier (1966), and another essay collection, The Zodiac Arch (1968).
Her last big expedition was to Afghanistan in 1968, when she was 75 years old. She traveled to see the 12th-century Minaret of Jam. In 1970, she published The Minaret of Djam: An Excursion into Afghanistan. In her retirement in Asolo, she put together new essays, A Peak in Darien (1976). She also prepared selections of her many Letters (8 volumes, 1974–82) and her travel writings, The Journey's Echo (1988).
Later Life and Legacy
Freya Stark was honored as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1972. This is a very high award in Britain.
She passed away in Asolo, Italy, on May 9, 1993. She was 100 years old, having celebrated her birthday just a few months before.
Personal Life
In 1947, at 54 years old, Freya married Stewart Perowne. He was a British administrator, historian, and expert on Arab culture. They had met when she worked as his assistant during World War II. Their marriage had many difficulties. Freya found it hard to be the wife of a government official. They did not have children and separated in 1952, though they never officially divorced.
Stewart Perowne died in 1989.
See also
In Spanish: Freya Stark para niños
