Record Number: 33604

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Great black blocks, roughly cut, show the seawall protecting the citadel's approach; and on a ledge east of the causeway the two inscriptions in the rock are clear as on the day that they were cut [...] as through a rift in clouds, they show for a moment the history of Cana in the past. The citadel itself was called Mawiya, and the Governor of Cana here, in the shorter inscription, recorded his presence. The longer one was dated and tells how the tribes of Himyar, having made an expedition into Abyssinia, were harassed by the Abyssinians in their turn; with their lands invaded, their king killed, they shut themselves up in this fortress, and restored its single gateway, its cisterns and walls in the year A.D. 625 or thereabout, many centuries after the Periplus speaks of the ancient harbour [...] these things I turned idly over while copying out the inscriptions through the quiet solitary hours of the afternoon.

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 22 Mar 1938 and 26 Mar 1938

Country:

Yemen

Time

afternoon
daytime

Place:

city: Bal Haf, near Bir Ali
county: Shabwa
specific address: ruined citadel and causeway

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

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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

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Anon Anon

Title:

unknown inscriptions

Genre:

History, Politics, unknown inscriptions in Sabaean (Himyaritic) script

Form of Text:

Unknown

Publication Details

c. 625 A.D. Rock inscriptions in Sabaean (Himyaritic)

Provenance

read in situ
Read in situ in the ruined citadel of Bir Ali

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Source Information:

Record ID:

33604

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:

291-92

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. 291-92, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33604, accessed: 19 May 2025

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Additional Comments:

Dame Freya Madeline Stark (31 January 1893 - 9 May 1993) was a British traveller and explorer. This reading took place in the ruins of Balhaf, near Bir Ali (site of the ancient port of Cana), in the Wahidi Sultanate of Balhaf, which was a British protectorate from 1888-1967, when it was abolished by the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1967-1990) regime. Balhaf is today Yemen's leading port for the export of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The inscriptions were in Sabaean (Himyaritic) which Stark had taught herself to read.