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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [129r] (264/1814)
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.
I
FROM KUCHAN TO KELAT-I-NADIRI 121
Halting outside the village, I sent Ramzan Ali to hire a guide
to lead us to Kelat, having heard from an Afghan trader at
March to Kuchan that there was a track from here across the
Pushtah mountains. A man was found who, for three li/rcins ,
offered to conduct us to Pushtah, six farsakhs. Further he had
never been, but another guide would be procurable there. As we
were waiting outside the walls in some fields that formed part of
the vakf or endowment of the shrine of Imam Reza at Meshed,
the leading personage of Radkan—a green-turbaned seyid who
administered the domain—came out with a posse of townsfolk
behind him to inspect some tobacco with which the ground had
been planted. He loudly expressed his dissatisfaction with the
crop, and his intention to sow wheat another year. We started
again at ten. It was a long wearisome ride to Pushtah, for the
sun was piercingly hot, and a brisk wind sprang up and blew the
desert into suffocating whirlwinds of dust. At about ten miles
from Radkan the track passed into the first fold of the foot hills
on the north side of the plain, and then struck boldly up a dried
torrent bed to a higher plateau, the first of a series of similar
terraces between the main range and the Meshed valley. There
were no villages, water, or vegetation in this arid desert. At
twenty miles from Radkan we came to a kind of circular crater
with ragged walls, at the extreme end of which, under a rock
once crowned by a fort, nestled the village of Shiri 1 by the side of a
genuine stream. Skirting this and continuing to the north, we now
passed on to a second and higher terrace that stretched for several
miles to the base of the Hazar Musjid, 2 or main range. Dotted at
intervals along its length could, be seen the villages of Girri,
Pushan, and Ardokh. We camped at the village of Pushtah, on
the southern side of this plateau, six good farsakhs from Radkan.
On the plain outside was a very large encampment of Kurd
nomads, with black many-peaked tents, and innumerable flocks.
October 16.— Started at 6.45 a.m. We marched straight across
the plain to the village of Ardokh (or Ardrakh), two miles, at
1 I find few of these names marked in any map that I have seen, and can only,
therefore, give them as they were given to me.
2 ‘ Hazar Mnsjid ’ signifies ‘ A Thousand Mosques,’ the needle-like pinnacles
and crags of the mountain range being compared by the facile imagination of the
Mussulman pilgrim to the minarets of many mosques —hazar being frequently
used in Persian as a round number. Others say that the Mohammedans believe in
the existence of 1,000 prophets, with a mosque for each.
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 [129r] (264/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000047> [accessed 6 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