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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [76v] (159/1814)
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.
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20
PERSIA
errors of his predecessors, bequeathed a scarcely inferior stock for
the critical delectation of his successors.
The next or eighteenth century was one of political storm in
Persia; a condition of affairs unfavourable to travel or research,
Eighteenth and represented by a proportionate shrinkage in the
century number and contributions of foreign writers. Neverthe
less in the works of John Bell of Antermofy, who acted as surgeon
to a Russian embassy from Peter the Greaf to Shah Sultan Husein,
the last of the Sefavi monarchs; of Krusinski, who in the same
reign was Procurator of the Jesuits at Isfahan, and of othei Roman
Catholic priests; of Otter, who travelled through Persia while
Nadir Shah was absent on his famous march against India ; and
most of all, of Jonas Hanway, the intelligent and philanthropic
London merchant, who attempted a revival of the impossible pro
ject of a British Caspian trade—we have presented to us pictures,
no less lurid in detail than vivid in outline, of the horrors attending
an epoch of anarchy and bloodshed. Towards the latter part of the
same century, G. Forster, the first overland traveller by Afghani
stan and Persia from Hindustan to England, adds greatly to geo
graphical knowledge by his adventurous journey in the North ;
while in the South the liberal-minded and popular regime of Kerim
Khan Zend, who ruled as Yekil or Regent at Shiraz, is pourtrayed
to us by Ensign Franklin of the Anglo-Indian army, and by
Carsten Niebuhr, fresh from his great journeys in the Arabian
peninsula. In the same period Gmelin and Olivier sustain the
credit respectively of Russia and France.
Turning the corner of the nineteenth century, we cross the
threshold of an epoch when the avenues of entry to Persia having
been reopened by European diplomacy, a stream of
travellers has followed in the wake of plenipotentiaries,
ministers, and envoys, both classes devoting themselves
with equal assiduity to the literary record of their experiences.
The two missions of Sir John Malcolm in 1800 and 1810, resulted
in two works from his own pen : the ‘ History of Persia,’ which,
though written before the scientific spirit had pervaded the
historical school, has yet remained the standard English work on
the subject, and his ‘ Sketches of Persia ’ (published anonymously),
one of the most delightful compositions ever penned; in the
Geographical Memoir of Captain Macdonald, afterwards Sir J.
Macdonald Kinneir, and British Minister in Persia which for
N ine-
teentli
century
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 [76v] (159/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x0000a6> [accessed 5 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