![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎74r] (154/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0165.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎74r] (154/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [74r] (154/1814)
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
15*
vely fr ^ r
:e Ar
, pur p le b
3er ’ or
r enof ^
: y b f ed ; %
of ^ et achej
enerable w
d w ho :
and the hori.
ed mud -wan
i ' alleys ther e
m worthy of
l S a Hade of
nor do brooks
iming torrent,
■cling a pitiful 1
while do these
n the contrast
and West, but
life itself. It
ite and in the
mated, almost
ng peaks. A
ed by riotous,
flowers in the
le moment we
• stark desert
from life to
n the autumn
3 hours imme-
ti striking the
Able gamut of
espond to the
lem. Majestic
ast rear thmr
Tiny and ffl'
nurtured children grow up into robust men. Conversely, female-
beauty in early youth is followed by a premature decay and ugli
ness beyond words. Just as from a distance a town surrounded by
its orchards looks a gem of beauty, but shrinks upon nearer ap
proach into a collection of clay hovels; and just as in the exterior
of these houses, consisting of blank and unsightly walls of mud,
there is no hint of the flower-beds and tanks, of the taste and
comeliness that sometimes prevail within, so does the human ex
terior tell a contradictory tale of its inmate. Splendide mendax
might be taken as the motto of Persian character. The finest
domestic virtues co-exist with barbarity and supreme indifference
to suffering. Elegance of deportment is compatible with a coarse
ness amounting to bestiality. The same individual is at different
moments haughty and cringing. A creditable acquaintance with
the standards of civilisation does not prevent gross fanaticism and
superstition. Accomplished manners and a more than Parisian
polish cover a truly superb faculty for lying and almost scientific
imposture. The most scandalous corruption is combined with a
scrupulous regard for specified precepts of the moral law. Religion
is alternately stringent and lax, inspiring at one moment the bigot’s-
rage, at the next the agnostic’s indifference. Government is both
patriarchal and Machiavellian—patriarchal in its simplicity of
structure, Machiavellian in its finished ingenuity of wrong doing.
Life is both magnificent and squalid; the people at once despicable
and noble : the panorama at the same time an enchantment and a
fraud.
I desire before concluding to say a few words about the litera
ture to which the study of Persia has given birth, more especially
Literature literatum of discovery and travel. Lew countries so
of travel sparsely visited have been responsible for so ample a
bibliography. The reason is obvious. To each new-comer the com
parative rarity of his experience has been conceded as the excuse
for a volume. In the category of these productions are to be found
works as painstaking and meritorious as ever passed through the
press. Nor is their value in any degree diminished, it is, on the
contrary, enhanced by the fact that the list of which I speak in
cludes some of the most worthless rubbish that ever blundered into
print. I shall hope shortly to publish in a supplementary volume
as complete a bibliography of Persian history and travel as my own
studies and existing sources of information have enabled me to.
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 [74r] (154/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x0000a1> [accessed 13 February 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