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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [69r] (144/1814)
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.
INTRODUCTORY
5
vat Britain
P e > n ot even
‘S’ or in tli e
ler offspring
carne ) anci
d ' Witho^
Possession 0 f
tho eastern
0 been lords
:l0 r 5 a Timur,
that in the
f sovereignty
continued to
of Persia for
) France the
ir have con-
the ambition
. In the in-
1 invested in
o turn west-
of statesman-
•oom may yet
mt of days;’
ie arbiters of
are the rulers
e world; and
vhich may be
vement of the
to man.
li the larger
i I have had
has ever been
n scope and
elieve that it
aict Persia as
^e a succinct
i and features,
present king), into the diplomatic comity of nations, and her efforts
to accommodate herself to the ill-fitting clothes of a civilisation
that sits but clumsily upon her: so that any man, anxious to
ascertain in any respect what is the Persia of Nasr-ed-Din Shah,
how to reach it, whither to go when he gets there, what to ask for
and to see, what has been done or explored or said by others before
him, what there remains for him to do, may discover that which he
seeks in these pages, finding therein, not merely an account of the
status quo —the fleeting record of a moment—but, pieced together,
fragment by fragment, the processes and means by which that
state has been produced, and by a knowledge of which alone will
he be able either to comprehend the resultant issue or to frame a
forecast as to the future. In a word, I shall endeavour to do here
for Persia what far abler writers have done for most other coun
tries of equal importance, but what for two hundred years no single
English
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.
has essayed to do foi* Iran, viz. to present a full-
length and life-size portrait of that kingdom.
Finally, I shall add whatever of variety or incident may be
possible to a text that might otherwise prove somewhat
Travel ^ G . . 1
solid of substance, by describing the wayfarer’s life in
the East and the ever-fresh, if seldom momentous, incidents of
travel.
It ought not to be difficult to interest Englishmen in the Persian
interest of P 6 ^ 6 - 1 They have the same lineage as ourselves. Three
Persian thousand years ago their forefathers left the uplands of
nationality mysterious Aryan home from which our ancestral
stock had already gone forth, and the locality of which is still
1 In the minds of a great many English folk I fear that Persia awakens few
other images than a recollection of the tales of Herodotus, the verses of Moore,
and the diamonds of the Shah. On the whole, Herodotus more often wrote history
than story; while the quality of the Shah’s jewels is unimpeachable. But I
regret to say that a heavy weight of responsibility lies at the door of Moore, whose
descriptions of Persia are about as much like the original as the Alhambra of
Leicester Square is like the exquisite palace of Boabdil. The roses of Bende-
meer’s stream are equally illusory with the nightingales; ‘Kishma’s amber vines ’
are in comical contrast with the treeless sterility of the real Kishm; and when
Luttrell wrote— , T , ^ ,
‘ I am told, dear Moore, your lays are sung
(Can it be true, you lucky man ?)
By moonlight in the Persian tongue
Along the streets of Ispahan,’
he must have been confiding in the ignorance, as well as humouring the egoism
of the poet.
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 [69r] (144/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x000097> [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