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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [80r] (166/1814)
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.
WAYS AND MEANS
27
teenth century, when the Sefavi dynasty held their gorgeous
court at Isfahan, the ports of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
were the more
natural point of debarkation. Even in the early part o tie
present century, while the Caucasus was still unsubdued and a
terror to travellers, the southern route was preferred by European,
nnd especially by English voyagers, the more so as Anglo-Persran
relations were then in the hands of the East India Company, anc
were dictated and controlled from Calcutta or Bombay. It was at
Bushire that the missions of Sir John Malcolm, Sir Harford Jones,
and Sir Gore Ouseley first set foot upon the territory of the King
of kings.
Premising, therefore, that these are the simplest and most
obvious lines of access, I will commence upon the north with the
Scheme of Enzeli-Teheran route, and will next describe the re
chapter maining northern approaches; after which the eastern,
southern, and western entrances will succeed each other m natural
order.
The Persian port, or rather landing-place (for, as will be seen,
Persia enjoys no such luxury as a port), on the Caspian is at
Enzeli, a village upon a low .spit of land enclosing upon
Teheran the sea side a broad bnt shallow lagoon, known as the
rente Murdab, or Dead Water, on the inner or southern shore of
which, at a slight distance from the sea, is situated the considerable
town of Resht. It is in this sense that travellers commonly speak
of landing in Persia at Reskt.
Enzeli is served by tire steamers of tke Russian Caucasus and
Mercury Company, running from Baku, which place there are
several methods of reaching from Europe. (1) Train may
reaching be taken to Constantinople, boat (Messageries, Austrian
Enzeii Lloyd, or Russian) from thence to Batum—3 or 4 days
—and train vid Tiflis to Baku—32 hours ) (2) train may be taken
vid Berlin and Cracow to Odessa, and Russian steamer thence to
Batum—3 days; (3) Tiflis may be reached overland from. St.
Petersburg and Moscow by rail to Vladikavkas, and by caniage
over the famous Dariel Road—136 miles into Georgia ; (4) there
is still another method of reaching Baku, viz. by rail across Russia
to Tsaritsin, on the Molga, thence by river-boat to Astrakhan, and
thence by Caucasus and Mercury Company steamers down the
west coast of the Caspian, touching at Petrofsk and Derbent 2^-
days—to Baku. This is perhaps, in point of time, the most ex-
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 [80r] (166/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213842.0x0000ad> [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