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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎60v] (127/1814)

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. .

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expressed are therefore, in every case, those of a private individual
only, and have been formed in entire independence of official
authority or inspiration.
As regards orthography, I have endeavoured to strike a mean
between popular usage and academic precision, preferring to incur
the charge of looseness to that of pedantry. The transliteration
of Persian or Arabic names into a language which is deficient in
the symbols that represent some of their sounds is intrinsically
difficulty and is complicated in this case by the Indian pronuncia
tion of Persian names, with which Englishmen are more apt to be
familiar, but which is not that encountered in Persia itself. In
many cases I have bowed to convention, which after a time consti
tutes a law, spelling Bushire rather than Abu Shehr, and Meshed
rather than Mashhad. Elsewhere I have endeavoured to combine
approximate accuracy with as faithful a reproduction as possible
of the sound of the native pronunciation. If I have sometimes
been betrayed into inconsistencies, they are such as it is almost
impossible to escape.
Should these volumes in any degree correspond to the fond
ideal of the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , it will only be because of the lavish assistance
of which I have been the fortunate recipient. Neither my journey
nor my studies would have availed for this object had they not
been reinforced by the ready co-operation of every authority upon
the subject to whom I have appealed, and more especially by a
flood of information, extending to the very date of issue, which
has reached me from correspondents in Persia itself. Neither
could I have published these pages with any real confidence in
their accuiac^ had they not, in the order of their composition, been
despatched to Teheran for revision by more competent hands than
my own, as well as been submitted, in many cases, to the judgment
of equally eminent authorities at home.
Of these coadjutors the first, alike in authority, and in the
extent of his assistance, has been General A. Houtum-Schindler,
a gentleman who, after filling many important posts in the Persian
Service, is now acting as adviser to the Imperial Bank of Persia

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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
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎60v] (127/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x000086> [accessed 22 December 2024]

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