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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [131r] (268/1814)
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 KUCHAN TO KELAT -I-NADIRI
125
horizon spread the blue band of the Kara Kum (Black Sand), which
I had left little more than a week before at Ashkabad. A bee-line
due north from where I was standing would have struck the
Russian station of Kaahka, on the Transcaspian Railway, from
which, or from the neighbouring station of Dushak, a year before
my companions and I had lightly and without any preparations
contemplated an expedition to Kelat and Meshed, little recking ol
the appalling stretch of country that intervened. On that
occasion we had been stopped by the Russian authorities ; 1 and I
had since travelled some thousands of miles in order to renew the
experiment from the opposite quarter. We now commenced a
very steep and prolonged descent, having to lead our horses most
of the way, the ravine breaking at times into a sheer precipice
upon our left hand. The opposite side of the gorge had sloping
sides of coloured clay and marls, above which rose sandstone
pinnacles and towers ; and as we contemplated the strange and
variegated spectacle, it was as though the mountain had been
draped for festal purposes in a particoloured skirt with purple and
crimson flounces. 2 The defile was alive with partridges, in coveys
of from four to eight. They started up with a whirr almost under
our feet, but seldom flew more than a hundred yards. Indeed, they
seemed to be greater adepts on foot than on the wing, for they
scudded up the bare vertical cliffs just like squirrels. At the
bottom of the descent we followed the dried-up bed of a torrent
till, through a rocky portal, it opened upon the last valley but one
before that of Kelat. Here the telegraph poles and track diverged
to the right, but as it was now late in the afternoon, and our
animals were dead beat, we turned to the left, following the course
of a plentiful stream that ran down the valley and made it green
with cIigyocits (the Oriental plane) and poplars. At the mouth of this
valley is a gigantic chenar springing from the base of a rock which
contains an imtimzadeh, or saint’s tomb. Its boughs were positively
covered with rams’ horns, a favourite offering of the pious
Mussulman to the distinguished dead, and with other emblems of
P0Y'0p0i][0e. Alter a mile and a half I reached the secluded little
village of Issurcha or Ab-i-garm (i.e. hot water), so called from
some warm springs which rise near by.
1 Vide JRussia in Central Asia, p. 101.
2 x have nowhere seen such brilliant natural colours in rock and mould except
in the canon of the Yellowstone River in North America.
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 [131r] (268/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x00004b> [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