Record Number: 33585
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'I lie contentedly enough, and amuse myself with a book which Qasim, seeing me in pain, has brought me in his kindness. It is his most treasured possession, a life of the Prophet in big lettering on rough paper, brown-black on brown-white, with flowered borders and headlines with the name of Allah, the author's name in a lunette at the top of every page, and the number of the page in a little flowered frame of its own on the margin. It gives one pleasure to handle anything done, even by mechanical means, with so much loving care. The book itself is written guilelessly, and tells the legends of Muhammad; how Amina, his mother, bore him without weight or discomfort, and in sleep saw the prophets month by month in turn, and in the last month the Prophet Jesus - for the substance of Muhammad, a drop from the River of Paradise, had been in the bodies of all the Prophets before him, beginning with Adam.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:1 Dec 1937
Country:Yemen
Timedaytime
Place:city: Shibam
county: Shibam, Hadhramaut
(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Female
Date of Birth:31 Jan 1893
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Travel writer
Religion:Christian
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:Yemen
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Life of the Prophet Muhammad
Genre:Other religious, Biography, Life of the Prophet Muhammad in Arabic
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsin Arabic
Provenanceborrowed (other)
Lent to Freya Stark by her manservant, Qasim
Source Information:
Record ID:33585
Source:Freya Stark
Editor:n/a
Title:A Winter in Arabia: A Journey through Yemen
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1972
Vol:n/a
Page:46
Additional Comments:
Pagination is from the 2011 IB Tauris edition. The book was first published by John Murray in London in 1972.
Citation:
Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia: A Journey through Yemen, (London, 1972), p. 46, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33585, accessed: 18 May 2025
Additional Comments:
Dame Freya Madeline Stark (31 January 1893 - 9 May 1993) was a British explorer and travel writer. Reading took place in Shibam in the Qu'aiti State of Hadhramaut, which was a British protectorate at the time. I have not been able to identify the specific life of the Prophet owned by Qasim and read by Stark.
