Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan: Volume 1: Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs

by Isabella Lucy Bird

Isabella Bishop (nee Bird) published her Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan in 1891, compiled from a series of letters home. Recommended an open-air life from an early age as a cure for physical and nervous difficulties, Bird toured the United States and Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the Far East. After her marriage, and the death of her husband in 1886, she did missionary work in India and then, in 1890, travelled to little-known parts of Turkey, Persia and Kurdistan in the company of Major Herbert Sawyer of the Indian Army. This came to be the hardest journey of her experience, with extremes of temperature and harsh living conditions for the sixty-year-old, although she was able to provide medical care for the local people. Volume 1 introduces the region, its people, and their customs and includes many evocative anecdotes. It also contains a glossary and maps."

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Middle East, British Literature, Biography Memoir

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1891

About the author

Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop (October 15, 1831 – October 7, 1904) was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer, and a natural historian.

Works:
* The Englishwoman in America (1856)
* Pen and Pencil Sketches Among The Outer Hebrides (published in The Leisure Hour) (1866)
* The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875)
* The Two Atlantics (published in The Leisure Hour) (1876)
* Australia Felix: Impressions of Victoria and Melbourne (published in The Leisure Hour) (1877)
* A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)
* Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880)
* Sketches In The Malay Peninsula (published in The Leisure Hour) (1883)
* The Golden Chersonese and the way Thither (1883)
* A Pilgrimage To Sinai (published in The Leisure Hour) (1886)
* Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891)
* Among the Tibetans (1894)
* Korea and her Neighbours (1898)
* The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (1899)
* Chinese Pictures (1900)
* Notes on Morocco (published in the Monthly Review) (1901)

Reviews

[Wanda]

2 JUN 2015 - Ms Bird was recommended to me by Bettie for her travel writing about Edinburgh. When I looked on Project Gutenberg, I discovered Ms Bird was well-travelled. She had been to Persia and Kurdistan - areas of interest and fascination to me.

In two wolumes:

Vol 1 - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38827

Vol 2 - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38828

[Sarahandus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to get out the atlas to see the routes she was taking, especially a topographical map.
The descriptions of the clothes and "houses" really puts you into the time and place.

I read this on a Nook and wish I had a physical copy to be able to read the footnotes at the time they are noted in the text. By the end of the book I've forgotten what is being referred to in the footnotes.

After resting up from that expedition I will take on volume 2.

[CarolBeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A preface: I have always LOVED reading books by Isabella Bird. However, this one was a real slog, both literally and literarily.

Today, by a great act of will, I finished "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Travels on Horseback in 1890, Volume One" by Isabella Bird.

This volume covers the first part of her journey, from January 1 to May 31, 1890 through the mountains in what would probably be modern-day Iran. About the first 200 pages is spent traveling through high altitudes on horse or muleback, in the WINTER. The first question that comes to mind is why on EARTH she chose to do that in the WINTER? I suppose that is answered when you get to the parts in spring where the temperatures hover around or exceed 100 degrees F.
In the lower altitudes, there is torrential rain, knee-deep mud, and miserable conditions. In the higher altitudes there is snow 4-10 feet deep, only wide enough for one horse to go through, and miserable conditions. Nights are spent in various "caravanserai", with knee-deep mud and manure, filthy "rooms" with no roofs, doors or fires, with temperatures dropping below zero overnight. The people are terribly poor, and everywhere she goes, she is administering medicine, mobbed by poor people in very poor health. (In fact, she established hospitals around the world).

She always tries to be in good humor about things...my favorite part of the book was the bit where the snow has just been shoveled from her room, the fire could not be lit, the temperature is 5 degrees below zero (F), and the roof is cracked open, the water in her cup froze before she could drink it, but she says "...and the hybernation [sic] of the insects makes up for any minor discomforts." Oh yes, those MINOR discomforts!

This book was a difficult read. It was very academic, and occasionally didactic. There was much discussion of the topography, the plants, the societies, the treatment of women (we would find it scandalous) and so forth. I found it interesting, as I read, to grab my phone and look up pictures of the structures that she described, plants she mentioned, and historical moments. For an Englishwoman of her time, her descriptions of the people and the politics of the area were quite advanced. But this is NOT a light read, and must be read in an historic context. If you really like history and other cultures, you will probably enjoy this.

Now really, I LOVE the books of Isabella Bird. She was the first female inducted into the Royal Geographic Society, as she was "traveling for her health." Please do read some of her books! But do yourself a favor...start with "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" or "The Hawaiian Archipelago" and go from there!

Yes, I'll eventually read Volume Two of this journey. But not now. I need something fluffy. This one got 3-1/2 stars, although I wavered between 3 or 3-1/2, I went with 3-1/2 because I just love Isabella Bird!

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband read this to me. It’s rough going at first, and Persia of Isabella Bird’s time does not present a pretty picture. But things decidedly improve once she embarks on the “journey proper” - can’t wait to continue with volume 2!

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glimpse of a world that we will never see again.

[Alan Gorani]

Read it!