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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [112v] (231/1814)
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.
PERSIA
huts, clinging to the hill side, at about two miles from the f ron f
down a valley; and here it was that, stumbling along on foot witl
my bridle on my arm, I fortunately struck my camp. A glorioir
moon, idealising the gaunt and sombre landscape, had cheered
solitary ride and guided me to my destination. There was not "
atom of verdure on the brown bleak hills ; and not a sign or sound
of life on the road except a rare caravan moving with music of
camel-bells through the silence.
The mountain range through which I had been passing, i n
whose spurs and branches I spent another two days before reaching
The K uchan, and in whose rugged eastern ramifications I
Mountains WaS t0 Wander f ° r the ten dayS followin g 5 is the eastern
prolongation of'the great Elburz range that runs like a
mighty rock wall along the entire northern border of Persia
Connected with the Caucasian system upon the west, it follows at
distances varying from ten to thirty miles the south coast line of
the Caspian, throwing up on its way the prodigious peak of
Demavend (19,400 ft.), until, temporarily arrested in the valley
of the Gurgan beyond Astrabad, it assumes a new lease of vigour
m the knotted mountain ridges that stand one behind the other
like infantry files, with an axis pointing from north-west to south
east, m the middle district between the Turkoman plains and the
northern skirts of the Great Persian Desert. Further on the con-
i nec D° n is as distinct with the misnamed Paropamisan range above
Herat, itself a western continuation of the tremendous Hindu
Hush. In the legion under examination, the border ranges on the
north are known by the names of the Kuren Dagh and KopetDagh,
whilst the main and still higher inland ridge, enclosing the valley
of the Atrek on the south, bears the successive names of Ala Dagh
and Binalud Kuh. The upland valleys concealed between these
paiallel banieis have an average elevation of 4,000 feet, and are
dominated by peaks that claim an altitude of from 8,000 to 11,000
feet. It is said that in Khorasan alone there are not less than
sixteen summits which answer to this description. Nothing can
exceed the bleak sterility of their outward form. Unredeemed by
any verdure but a stunted and scanty growth of juniper, watered
y few springs, and with little or no soil upon the slopes, the grey
imestone tells with frank and forbidding effrontery its remote
geological tale. It was not out of keeping with the chill and
savage character of these hills that until the last decade they were
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 [112v] (231/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000026> [accessed 16 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