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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [594v] (1203/1814)
The record is made up of 2 volumes with inserts (898 folios). It was created in 1892-1924. It was written in English, Urdu and German. The original is part of the 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
188 PERSIA
that Diodorus may in reality have been describing another building
or group of buildings at Persepolis, the citadel, in fact, as distinguished
from the palaces (although he erroneously identified them), and that
such an enclosure may have existed in the neighbourhood of A T aksh-i-
Rustam. Now, it is true that on the platform there appears to be
inadequate provision for the treasure-house, the barracks of the body
guard, and the other concomitants of royal residence that we know, or
must believe, to have existed at Persepolis ; and to that extent may we
be prepared to believe that a citadel or fort existed in a detached
situation ; though even so, there would appear to have been no reason
for the erection on the plain of Mervdasht of such an imposing place-
of-arms as Diodorus has described ; nor does it seem likely that palace
and fort would have been placed three miles apart. But until some
positive traces of the whereabouts of this citadel have been brought to
light, I shall prefer myself to accept the rival hypothesis that Clitarchus
or Diodorus did not know or confused what they were writing about,
transferring to Persepolis the structural features which existed at
Ecbatana and in other contemporaneous and neighbouring capitals,
and seasoning a nucleus of fact with a magniloquent garniture of
fancy.
We have seen when and by whom the palaces on the platform were
set up. We have seen that the entire work appears to have been
History of sus P en( ^ ec ^ or > an y rate, that several of the edifices lacked
destruc- completion. I have given reasons for attributing the initial
tlon destruction of one palace at least to Alexander. The only
remaining historical question is at what period the sculptures and ruins
were reduced to their present mutilated condition. The fall of the
Persian monarchy, the neglect of the Seleucidm and Parthians, the
preference of the Sassanian sovereigns for other capitals, are all land
marks in the long history of decline. From the Arab invasion, in all
probability, dated the first deliberate and wholesale mutilation, the
defacement of the king’s features wherever they could be reached, and
the brutal employment of every available instrument of destruction.
And yet I think that the moderns, too, have borne their share in the
iconoclastic campaign. Centuries of Persians have carried off thousands
of tons of building-material from the ruins. We have the authority
of Chardin that Abbas the Great sent hither for marble [sic] for his
palaces and mosques ; that Imam Kuli Khan, the great viceroy of
Pars, did the same for his capital at Shiraz ; and that the Minister of
also have resulted from a mistaken reproduction of Clitarchus’ raupovs, a very
natural allusion to the colossal bulls, who might well strike terror, where a palisade
could not, and to whom the attribute brazen might easily have been shifted from
the gates. On the other hand, there is no trace of gates ever having existed in
the Porch of Xerxes.
About this item
- Content
These two volumes are George Curzon's own personal annotated copies of both volumes of his book Persia and the Persian Question , which was published in 1892. Alongside the volumes are various loose papers relating to Persia [Iran], consisting of the following: received correspondence; newspaper cuttings; publishers' press releases; cuttings from various booksellers' catalogues; various journal and magazine articles; two items of printed official British correspondence; several prints of photographs and sketches; and a few handwritten notes by Curzon.
In most cases these papers, which range in date from 1892 to 1924, relate to the chapters in the book where they were originally inserted, suggesting that they were kept by Curzon with the intention of using them to inform a revised edition of the book.
Of particular note among the small amount of correspondence are two letters received by Curzon in 1914 and 1915 from retired schoolmaster and Islamic scholar Sayyid Mazhar Hasan Musawi of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India (ff 5-9 and ff 44-53). These letters, which are written in Urdu and are accompanied by English translations, discuss in detail several inaccuracies found in the Urdu version of Persia and the Persian Question .
The various prints of photographs and sketches, which were originally inserted into volume two, are of different locations in the Gulf region. Several of these appear to have been produced in preparation for the publication of the second volume of John Gordon Lorimer's Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Oman and Central Arabia (i.e. the 'Geographical and Statistical' section) in 1908, as they are identical to the versions found in that volume.
Also of note among the loose papers are an illustrated article from Country Life dated 5 June 1920, entitled 'The People of Persia' (ff 36-37), and a printed family tree of the Shah of Persia [Aḥmad Shah Qājār], produced in preparation of his visit to Britain in 1919 (f 233).
Volume one of Persia and the Persian Question contains a map of Persia, Afghanistan and Beluchistan [Balochistan], which is folded inside the front cover (f 1).
The German language material consists of a publisher's press release for two books authored by German archaeologist Ernst Emil Herzfeld (ff 29-30).
- Extent and format
- 2 volumes with inserts (898 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: this shelfmark consists of two physical volumes. The foliation sequence commences at the first folio of volume one (1-463), and terminates at the last folio of volume two (ff 464-898); these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Each volume contains a large number of loose leaves, which have been foliated in the order that they were inserted into the volume; for conservation reasons, these loose folios have been removed from the volume and stored separately. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers of the two volumes.
Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English, Urdu and German in Latin and Arabic script View the complete information for this record
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [594v] (1203/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000004> [accessed 4 March 2025]
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/33
- Title
- Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Questionby George Curzon, with Inserted Papers
- Pages
- 54r:135v, 147r:149v, 158r:180v, 183r:221v, 224r:224v, 227r:246v, 248r:257v, 259r:260v, 268r:362v, 364r:364v, 367r:388v, 390r:400v, 402r:416v, 419r:432v, 434r:444v, 448r:462v, 464r:471v, 475r:481v, 483r:513v, 516r:525v, 527r:544v, 546r:563v, 566r:598v, 600r:622v, 624r:656v, 658r:665v, 667r:675v, 678r:684v, 687r:688v, 691r:691v, 693r:693v, 695r:708v, 711r:721v, 724r:726v, 728r:729v, 731r:736v, 742r:742v, 746r:757v, 759r:761v, 763r:763v, 765r:765v, 772r:777v, 780r:789v, 793r:794v, 797r:809v, 811r:821v, 825r:840v, 843r:898v
- Author
- Curzon, George Nathaniel, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
- Usage terms
- Public Domain