![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎72r] (150/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0161.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎72r] (150/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [72r] (150/1814)
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
11
their pra
^ghbourjj
Q ru in, o,
more arie
3 mausol*
the corps
Darius s .
ff.
mar
o
idiwo
ies.
ami d these
past. They
far removed
l wealth, so
Xenophon-—
bs attributes,
Though in
» I shall not
fhich can be
r orks, I shall
bnd research,
country that
ers, and who
od enough to
3 n of science.
ill thankfully
enth century
!y imbued in
s, languages,
)okSj without
ud so orderly,
At the same
l observation
milt of what
1 to a part of
ihat man to
rivers fl°" r
tion, thougl 1
now relapsed into stony wastes; and where great engineering
works, enduring memorials of a hydraulic ingenuity, and a public-
spirited zeal, to which later centuries afford no paiallel,
western 1 ’ now raise their shattered piers amid a waste of untended
provinces waters anc j uncultivated lands. There great cities once
adorned the river banks ; great palaces reared their colonnades
and halls upon the summit of elevated mounds; great kings, a
Cyrus, a Darius, an Alexander, a Shapur, either swept past on the
stormy tide of conquest, or paused to taste the splendid luxury of
repose. Here I shall halt to notice the newly revived sparks of
industry and trade, which the present generation should not pass
without fanning into a livelier flame. This romantic region abuts
upon one still more famous in the annals of the past. Its borders
are washed by the broad estuary down which the Euphrates and
Tigris roll their commingled waters to the Gulf. Here we are in
a land of equal honour in sacred legend and profane history. We
may sail past the traditional Garden of Eden to the mysterious
site where, amid colossal mounds of pottery and brick, the
alphabet of Nebuchadnezzar speaks loudly from the ruins of
sculptured palaces, of terraced temples, and Babylonian towers,
where Daniel prophesied, where Israel wept, where Alexander
perished. We are on the river threshold of Busrah, the Balsorah
of Sinbad the Sailor, that Arab Columbus of an earlier age. We
may fringe the soaring arch of Ctesiphon and descry on the
horizon the minarets and palm trees of Baghdad.
. Finally, skirting in a vessel the southern and maritime borders
of Persia, I shall ask attention to a country and a sea little known
at home, to warring Arab tribes and piratical professions,
to seaports, now dead and deserted, whose fame once
sounded through Europe; to waters that have been
ploughed by the rival argosies of Portugal, Holland, and Great
Britain. If I am there tempted to unravel some few of the
threads that have been woven into a web of history, intensely
personal to our own country and race, I shall also be able to show
that Great Britain sustains, in a less acquisitive and martial age,
the prestige which she gained at the dawn of her career of Asiatic
conquest, and that the British name is still on these distant waters
a synonym for order and freedom.
These will provide what I may call the pictorial aspects of my
narrative ; mingled with the normal and yet uncommon episodes
4. The
Persian
Gulf
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 [72r] (150/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x00009d> [accessed 5 April 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