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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [97r] (200/1814)
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.
FROM LONDON TO ASHKABAD
61
escape the malarial contagion of the neighbourhood, which, after
one or two years’ sojourn, commonly asserts itself in physical
inertia or decline.
There are several hotels, mostly kept by Frenchmen, of which
the best is the Hotel de France. Here, and at the Hotel Imperial,
the better class of the population and the Russian officers
Daily life mee ^ d, take their meals and to consume the hours not
spent on business in such limited conversational relaxation as the
stupor of life at Batum admits of. There are no interests or
occupations, or even amusements, in the town outside the
ordinary official or mercantile routine. The talk soon reverts to
< shop .’ anc l oil, which is the staple commodity of business trans
actions, fills the same place in conversation also. There is little
to tempt the resident into the surrounding country, surpassingly
beautiful though it be. Sport is only pursued with much labour,
and, if at a distance, expense. There are not sufficient roads to
furnish any variety of rides. The heat during the greater part of
the year in the middle of the day is excessive, and rain is usually
falling. It is the awn sacra fames alone that has attracted so laige
a population to this uncanny spot. Fortunes can be and have
been made with startling rapidity ; and there are few of the resi
dents who do not look forward to an early flight, with lined pockets,
and a resolute intention never to set foot in Batum again.
Military necessities dictated to Russia the occupation of the
only decent port on the eastern coast of the Black Sea; but
petroleum as I have indicated, has made Batum, and
industry m petroleum is its life blood. All along the. recesses of the
bav and on the flat and feverish fringe of soil which separates it
from the splendid wooded background of hills, are to be seen the
clustered reservoirs and premises of the various firms engage m
this lucrative traded Over 5,000 tank-cars run between Baku
and Batum, the largest owners being Messrs.. Nobel an o
schild, the former of whom, with the enterprise for which they
have long been notorious, have procured a concession for a pipe
line over the difficult Suram mountain on the railway line nearer
Tiflis; 2 so that their tank cars, bringing the oil from the refineries
> There are at Batum eighty-five iron reservoirs, with a tankage capacity of
138,000 tons. . lnria . f rom Michaelovo to Kvirili, has
2 Messrs. Nobel’s pipe line is forty miles long, rrom ir c
a diameter of four inches, and can convey 700 tons of oil daily.
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 [97r] (200/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000007> [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