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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [68v] (143/1814)
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.
PERSIA
for the dominion of the world. The future of Great Britain,
according to this view, will be decided, not in Europe, not even
upon the seas and oceans which are swept by her flag, or m the
Greater Britain that has been called into existence by her offspring,
but in the continent whence our emigrant stock first came, and
to which as conquerors their descendants have returned. Without
India the British Empire could not exist. The possession of
India is the inalienable badge of sovereignty in the eastern
hemisphere. Since India was known its masters have been lords
of half the world. The impulse that drew an Alexander, a Timur,
and a Baber eastwards to the Indus was the same that in the
sixteenth century gave the Portuguese that brief lease of so\ ereignty
whose outworn shibboleths they have ever since continued to
mumble; that early in the last century made a Shah of Persia for
ten years the arbiter of the East; that all but gave to France the
empire which stouter hearts and a more propitious star have con
ferred upon our own people; that to this day stirs the ambition
and quickens the pulses of the Colossus of the North. In the in
creasing importance with which domestic politics are invested in
our own public life and in the prevailing tendency to turn west
wards, and to seek both for the examples and the arena of statesman
ship amid younger peoples and a white-skinned race, room may yet
be found for one whose fancy is haunted by c the ancient of days: ’
who reminds his countrymen that, while no longer the arbiters of
the West, they remain the trustees for the East, and are the rulers
of the second largest dark-skinned population in the world ; and
whd argues that no safeguard should be omitted by which may he
secured in perpetuity that which is the noblest achievement of the
science of civil rule that mankind has yet bequeathed to man.
Whilst, however, the connection of Persia with the larger
problems of Asiatic politics is the first object which I have had
in view, a second, scarcely less important, has ever been
before me, and has gradually swollen in scope and
dimensions, until of itself I would fain believe that it
might justify these volumes. This is a desire to depict Persia as
she now is, apart from her foreign relations; to give a succinct
account of her provinces and peoples, her institutions and features,
her sights and cities, her palaces, temples, and ruins; to trace her
entry, in the present century, and particularly during the last
half-century (a period nearly coterminous with the reign of the
History
and
Geography
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 [68v] (143/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x000096> [accessed 22 December 2024]
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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