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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [116r] (238/1814)
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 ASHKABAD TO KUCHAN
97
nc.
sovereigns of the world, with the Czar, quite double the size of the
rest, in the centre; and the old Emperor of Germany and the
Emperor of Austria, of size No. 2, on his right and left. Queen
Victoria, in a red silk dress, occupied the central position in a row
of the third dimension. Along with these embellishments were
nailed up a number of brightly coloured and gilded chromos of
religious subjects, such as the Virgin Mary, Christ, and different
saints of the Greek calendar, contrasting curiously with the
uniformed royalties and the smiling coquettes. The decorations
of the room sufficiently indicated the foreign influences to which
the Khan is most amenable, and must originally have been devised
for guests of another nationality than my own. Huge trays laden
with pink and white sweetmeats now arrived from the Khan, who
renewed his apologies, asked when I would come to see him, and
inquired whether I would be willing to remit the punishment of
the red-bearded emissary from Imam Kuli on the ground that,
being a Kurd, he had imperfectly understood the explanations
of my interpreter. I named five o’clock as the hour of meeting,
and gladly acquiesced in the pardon of the offender.
And now, having arrived at Kuchan, let me, before proceeding
further, give some idea of the character and inhabitants of this
General important frontier province, and of the personality of
description ^} ie Kurdish chieftain whose guest I was, and whom I
was about to interview.
Three hundred years ago the north-eastern border of Persia
was as subject to Tartar inroads as, till ten years ago, it was to
Plantation the alamans of the Akhal Tekkes. Collecting in the
0 ? the OWer desert on the north, they burst through the mountain
Kurds gorges and defiles, burnt, harried, massacred, plundered,
and retired with as much swiftness and as great impunity as
they had come. It was characteristic of the dispositions of a great
monarch that, recognising the inability of so timid a people as the
Persians successfully to resist the invaders themselves, Shah Abbas
looked elsewhere for his frontier garrison. Just as he transported
an entire Armenian community from his north-west provinces to
Isfahan, in order to teach trade and attract prosperity to his
newly founded capital, so he now transferred an entire com
munity of warlike Kurdish tribesmen from the same quarter, and
planted them in the mountainous glens and uplands of Khorasan.
By this judicious act he served a double purpose; for he both
VOL. i. H
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 [116r] (238/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x00002d> [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