![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎122r] (250/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0261.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎122r] (250/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [122r] (250/1814)
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
107
yon to travel ? How much do they pay you ? If not they, then
who pays you ? ’ The taste for travel and gratuitous thirst for
knowledge are emotions quite incomprehensible to the Oriental
mind. 1
I had great difficulty also in explaining to him my own pro
fession and the position of my family. Parliament he had never
heard of; and when I told him that I was a member of the great
mejilis (council), he replied, c Are you a soldier? 5 The status or
rank of an English nobleman conveyed nothing to him ; but he put
the pertinent questions, 4 Has your father many soldiers ? 5 and
‘ Who made him governor of his property ? ’ He was positively
amazed at a tenure of the same estates lasting over 800 years, but
replied, in the spirit of Mr. Hardcastle in t She Stoops to Conquer,’ 2 *
and with a Conservatism which I could not fail to admire, that
Ferenghistan was a great country because of its antiquity ; age, as
he said, meaning authority.
Acting in unconscious imitation of Fraser, who, nearly seventy
years before, had presented a silver hunting watch to the father of
Gift to the my host, I endeavoured to make some little recognition
ivimn 0 £ £] ie hospitality of which I was the recipient by offering
the
Ilkhani
The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran.
a watch, the hours and minutes upon the face of which
were marked not by a revolving hand, but by numerals appearing
on a disc. He was vastly interested in this novelty; but as he
could not understand the figures, which did not correspond with
the Roman numerals on watches which he had previously seen or
possessed, I had to draw up a table with the ordinary numerals
from 1 to 60 and their Roman equivalents, to which his secretary
appended a Persian translation. Having accepted the watch, the
Shuja somewhat staggered me by inquiring how much it had cost.
I attributed this question, which in a European would have implied
impertinent curiosity, to the Oriental desire to make a return of
as nearly as possible equivalent value to the donor, the notorious
character of the
Ilkhani
The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran.
for stinginess rendering it certain that he
1 ‘ These people cannot conceive that any one should travel for pleasure or from
curiosity. Who, argue they, would voluntarily undergo the fatigues and dangers,
not to mention the heavy expense, of a long journey merely for the sake of collect
ing information ? If, therefore, there be no ostensible motive for the journey, as
that of business or of traffic, they at once assign the one in their opinion most
likely.’—Fraser, Journey into Khorasan, p. 579.
2 ‘ I love everything that’s old : old friends, old times, old manners, old books,
old wine.’
r
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 [122r] (250/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000039> [accessed 9 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