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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [71r] (148/1814)
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
9
always possible and sometimes acute, and where the Indian Fi on-
tier question emerges as a formidable factor in the situation , to
the maritime provinces of Persia on the Caspian, where such an
amazing difference of natural conditions exists that they might be
mistaken for the antipodes, instead of a physical continuation, ol
Persian soil; and to the north-western and western piovinces,
containing great cities, an alien and divided population, and inde
structible remains of antiquity. Similarly, when I come to the
southern parts of the country, information will be forthcoming
about those more distant and little known provinces in the south
east and south-west, which have held out the longest against the
centralising tendencies of the age, and which still, in some soit,
exhibit an image of the nomad turbulence that was once a uniform
characteristic of Iranian society.
Resuming my journey at Teheran the opportunity will await us
of seeing something of a court whose splendour is said to have
2 Central formerly rivalled that of the Great Mogul, of a Govern-
provinces men t which is still, with the exception of China, the
most oriental in the East, and of a city which unites the unswerving
characteristics of an Asiatic capital with the borrowed trappings
of Europe. Thence the high road—only ninety miles of which is
a road in any known sense of the word—will lead us across the
successive partitions of the great plateau, possessing a mean
elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea, that occupies the
heart of Persia; and whose manifold mountain ridges intervene,
like the teeth of a saw, between the northern and southern seas.
In the plains of greater or less extent lying at their base we shall
find, in the shape of large but ruined cities, the visible records of
faded magnificence, of unabashed misrule, and of internal decay.
Kum, from behind its curtain of fanaticism and mystery, will
reveal the glitter of the golden domes that overhang the resting-
place of saints and the sepulchre of kings. Isfahan, with its
wreck of fallen palaces, its acres of wasted pleasaunce, its storeyed
bridges that once rang beneath the tread of a population numbered
at 650,000, will tell a tale of deeper pathos, although in its shrill
and jostling marts we may still observe evidence of mercantile
activity and a prospering international trade. Shiraz, which once
re-echoed the blithe anacreontics of Hafiz, and the more demure
philosophy of Sadi, preserves and cherishes the poets’ graves;
but its merry gardens, its dancing fountains, and its butterfly
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 [71r] (148/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x00009b> [accessed 14 June 2026]
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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