STARK, Freya. The Minaret of Djam. London, John Murray, [1970].
8vo. Original cloth with gilt lettering to spine in the original price-clipped wrapper; pp. [viii], 99; 51 black and white photo plates and one double-page map on turquois paper, numerous illustrations after drawings to text; edges of wrappers with minimal wear, a very good copy.
First edition, inscibed by the author to Barbara [Toy] on front fly-leaf, dated 1977. Stark recounts her journey from Kabul, across Afghanistan to Herat and Kandahar in search of the Minaret of Djam, the magnificent symbol of the powerful Ghorid Empire that once stretched from Iran to India lies in the heart of central Afghanistan's inaccessible Ghor Province.
Provenance: Barbara Toy, the Australian writer, traveller and playwright was granted to visit Saudi Arabia, and was one of the first Western women to talk to the King's harem. She drove her legendary 1950 Land Rover Polyanna, a motorcar still running and looked after. Her 1957 book A Fool Strikes Oil is a sought-after account of her Arabian journey.
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