![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎100r] (206/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0217.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎100r] (206/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [100r] (206/1814)
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 67
industry. When I inquired the basis of this calculation, the
reply was given that it was only an approximate census; and that,
when asking for accurate or official statistics, I was surely forgetting
in what country I was travelling. I remember once being told in
Russia that the only really scientific table of statistics which the
Government had issued for some years was one relating to the
consumption of vodka and its effect upon the national mortality.
The population was divided into three classes: the moderate
drinkers, the excessive drinkers, and the total abstainers; and it was
triumphantly demonstrated by the returns that the first named
were rewarded with the longest span of life ; a result which was
as warmly welcomed by the Excise Department as it was acceptable
to the consuming public. The story, se non e vero, e ben trovato.
From Baku to Uzun Ada I crossed the Caspian in the same
English-built boat, the 4 Bariatinski,’ in which I had made the
Across the P assa g e year. Though now an old vessel, she is still
Caspian one 0 f the best of the Caucasus and Mercury Company’s
fleet. The total number of their steamers plying between the
different ports of the Caspian is fifteen, and they are in receipt of
a large annual subsidy from the State for the conveyance of mails
and troops, and also for the use of their boats for transport in case
of war. One of these steamers sails from Baku to Uzun Ada
twice a week—on Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving at 5 p.m.
We had a beautiful passage, the Caspian having exhausted its
humours after a storm of ten days’ duration; and, after a long
steam up the serpentine channel framed in yellow sand hills,
reached Uzun Ada at 2.30 the next afternoon.
General Annenkoff was residing at Uzun Ada at the time,
and extended to me his customary hospitality, talking with enthu-
Generai siasm of the present and future of his railway, and
Annenkoff expounding his well-known ideas of a Russo-Indian
railway and an Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance. Subsequently,
at an improvised entertainment, he drank courteously to the health
of the English visitor, who, if he did not altogether share these
roseate views, had, at any rate, on a previous occasion shown his
willingness to do justice to the Transcaspian Railway, and honour
to the policy of its promoters. Uzun Ada appeared to me to have
somewhat extended its scanty and unstable dimensions during the
past year; 1 and the piers and surrounding sand were literally
1 The population in October 1889 was 1,650 persons.
f 2
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 [100r] (206/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x00000d> [accessed 4 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