The Valleys of the Assassins by Freya Stark

In 1934, Stark published an account of her wanderings in the classic book, The Valleys of the Assassins. The region was the Assassin's impregnable home - a hotbed of conspiratorial plotting - and at the height of their power, more than 50 heavily fortified castles provided refuge to the sect. In the 1930s, British travel writer and explorer Freya Stark travelled through this fabled valley in search of ancient castles built by the Assassins, an almost mythical cult of fanatics who'd descend from mountaintop strongholds on murderous missions targeting political and religious adversaries during the Middle Ages. What brought me to the Alamut Valley was the name of a book. After all, when you've lived your whole life in a region historically linked to one of the world's most feared militant sects, danger literally comes with the territory. I recoil as Rasoul, my guide, removes a snarling viper from the path. Full of wit and rich in detail - and also in humanity - her writing brings to vivid life the stories of the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East.Fear grips its frigid fingers on the back of my neck. Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins is an absorbing account of people and place. Stark was a woman of indefatigable energy, who often travelled with only a single guide and on a shoestring budget, and who was undeterred by discomfort and danger. Entering Luristan on a mule, draped in native clothing, Freya bluffs her way past border guards and sets off into uncharted territory places where few Europeans, and no European women, had ventured. The Valleys of the Assassins chronicles Stark's treks into the wilderness of western Iran on the hunt for treasure and in an attempt to locate the long-fabled Assassins in Alumut, an ancient Persian sect. Boarding a cargo ship to Beirut in 1927, she went on to became one of her generation's most intrepid explorers - her adventures would take her to remote areas in Turkey, the Middle East and Asia.

But it wasn't until she was in her thirties that she was able to leave Europe. Growing up in near-poverty and denied a formal education, Freya Stark had nurtured a fascination for the Middle East since reading Arabian Nights as a child. 'If I were asked to enumerate the pleasures of travel, this would be one of the greatest among them - that so often and so unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature.'

INTRODUCED BY MONISHA RAJESH, award-winning author of Around the World in 80 Trains

The Valleys of the Assassins by Freya Stark