'Biographical Notes'

Content

The volume contains manuscript draft biographical notes on Persian statesmen and notables compiled by George Percy Churchill.

Many of the notes are accompanied by imprints of the subject's seal and signature (in Persian); some by typescript pages, extracts from published works and newspaper cuttings; and a few (folio 114v, folio 163v) by portrait photographs. The notes give the subject's name as heading, and various information including dates of birth and death, office and career history, family details (including members of the Shah's family), pay and financial details, interests, linguistic abilities, and some personal comments.

The introductory page (folio 4v), which is signed by Churchill and dated 1904, is inscribed 'Strictly Confidential and for the Use of His Majesty's Government Officials Only'. A manuscript note states that the volume had been compiled from a variety of sources, and embodied the bulk of Colonel H Picot's biographical note of 1897, which Churchill had endeavoured 'to bring up to date and amplify'. The volume also contains a printed extract containing a list of words used in the composition of Persian titles, with a glossary of their meaning, including both the Persian forms and English transliterations; a manuscript genealogical tree of the Royal Kajar House; a manuscript list entitled 'Principal Persian Diplomatic and Consular Representation'; a manuscript list of Persian cabinet minsters and other politicians, dated 1901; list of ministers, provincial governors, etc in Persia dated 1904; and grouped cuttings of printed seals and coloured impressions of crests (folios 2v, 3r, 29v).

Extent and format

1 volume (302 folios)

Arrangement

The volume contains an alphabetical index of names between ff. 5-28. These refer to the main body of entries by means of pagination numbers.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at 2 on the first folio after the front cover and terminates at 303, on the inside back cover. These numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and appear in the top right hand corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. page of each folio. Foliation anomaly: ff. 4, 4A. The following folios need to be folded out to be read: f. 31, ff. 34-35.

Pagination: there is an incomplete printed pagination sequence, running from 1-489 (ff. 36v-299v) which appears in the top right hand corner of each recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. page, and the top left hand corner of each verso The back of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'v'. page of the main (ruled) portion of the volume. Some of the preceding pages in the volume have been numbered in pencil, but these numbers do not appear to be part of any discernible sequence.

Written in

English and Persian in Latin and Arabic script

Type

Archival file

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IOR/R/15/1/746

History of this record

Date(s)

c 1904 (CE, Gregorian)

Related material

Select Bibliography

George Percy Churchill Biographical Notes of Persian Statesmen and Notables, August 1905 (Calcutta, 1906).

Places

PersiaIraqNajdKūh-e MandKuk-I-MundRas TannuraRa's TannūrahZellaqAz ZallāqAl Jufayr

People & organisations

George Percy Churchill

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Cite this record in your research

'Biographical Notes', British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/746, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000193.0x0002d2> [accessed 17 February 2025]

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