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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [113v] (233/1814)
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.
marntjc "
PERSIA
a little science into the proceedings, but he died a month lat
and if native engineering talent has since been thought sufficient*
it is a poor look-out for the durability of the undertaking
labourers I saw at work were engaged in the most leisurely fashion •
and if the Mal*ek-et-Tajar completes his contract in double the
time specified I shall be very much surprised.
Passing down the valley in a south-easterly direction from Ba'
Girha, the present route leads through stony hills and glens that
Durbadam reminded me strangely of the forlorn belt of country i n
and imam Palestine that is crossed between Jerusalem and SammE
A little further we entered a narrow defile, which was so
steep that I was obliged to dismount and lead down my horse. Small
watch-towers perched like eyries on the cliff tops, and a rudely
constructed wall of stones built across the ravine, were reminders
of the not yet forgotten days of Turkoman forays. At the end of
the gorge we emerged upon a small circular plain, in which the
village of Durbadam takes advantage of the presence of a mountain
stream, deriving therefrom both its raison d’etre and wherewithal
of life. A square enclosure with high mud walls and projecting
towers at the angles was a sight with which I was to become daily
if not hourly familiar later on, and which was an elementary
obligation of tactics imposed by the Turkomans upon every village
within a hundred miles of their border. At Durbadam (14 miles)
I spread a carpet in an orchard and lunched.
Following the gorge by which the river Sharek enters the
valley, and where the new road will cross the stream several times,
and will be very liable to demolition by floods, we came into more
open country, and passed the first of two villages known as Imam
Ivuli on the left. Hearing sounds of lamentation proceeding from
a miserable hovel, and observing a circle of women and children
weeping and bewailing outside, I went up and found that one of
the natives of the village, a husband and a father, had been killed
by a fall of lock, while blasting on the new roadway, in the gorge
which I had just quitted. The dead body, naked, but covered
with a sheet, lay with its feet in the doorway. I gave the poor
creatures a few brans, as they looked miserably poor. Outside the
village I passed a shallow gravelly trench dug* by the roadside,
where, amid a little cluster of stony mounds, the hapless victim
was about to be laid to rest. At 3 p.m., in a wider opening of the
valley, dignified by occasional clumps of poplar, I reached the main
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 [113v] (233/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000028> [accessed 2 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