Record Number: 33591

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have a copyist now - a thin-faced student in a long gown who writes out for me the manuscript of the Sultan of Qatn for which I have no time: it is six hundred pages and tells, under red and green headings, the history of sixteenth century in Yemen. It is called the Sirat al Mutawakkiliya and was written in A.D. 1600, and in it are described scraps with the Ferangi (probably the Dutch) in the Red Sea, and a mission from Yemen to Abyssinia and news too of this land. Whether it is known or not in Europe I have no means of telling, but it is good enough in itself to be worth the copying, and it is a pleasure to perpetuate learning by this slow and ancient means. It is very expensive, for every two sheets of paper cost a quarter of a dollar (4 1/2d.), apart from the scribe's time; and it is difficult too to deal with, for none of the pages are numbered.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

8 Jan 1938

Country:

Yemen

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Huraidha
county: Shibam, Hadhramaut

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Freya Stark

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:

[Anon] [Anon]

Title:

Sirat al Mutawakkiliya

Genre:

Fiction, History, Geography / Travel, Politics, History of sixteenth-century Yemen, manuscript owned by the Sultan of Qatn

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Codex, Arabic history of Yemen

Publication Details

c.1600, Yemen. Arabic manuscript, c.600pp, owned by the Sultan of Qatn

Provenance

borrowed (other)
Borrowed from the Mansab of Huraidha - ms owned by the Sultan of Qatn

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

33591

Source:

Print

Author:

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:

92

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. 92, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33591, accessed: 25 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

Dame Freya Madeline Stark (31 January 1893 - 9 May 1993) was a British explorer and travel writer. This manuscript was owned by the Sultan of Qatn and lent to Stark by the Mansab of Huraidha at the time. Reading and copying of the manuscript started on 8 January 1938 in Huraidha (near Shibam) in the Qu'aiti State of Hadhramaut, which was a British protectorate from 1858 until its abolition in 1967. The 'Sirat al Mutawakkiliya' is a different manuscript from Habib Ahmed's 19th century commonplace book that Stark was copying out herself at the same time.