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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [132r] (270/1814)
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
127
moon hung high overhead, and straight in front the Great Bear
twinkled solemnly, standing upon his tail. At the exit of the
gorge was a ruined and unoccupied fort. The track now broad
ened into a flat and open valley, across which were drawn the
segments of a curious rocky ridge which had been burst through
by some convulsion of nature, and whose strata were strangely
contorted and inclined. Streams of water, impregnated with
naphtha, gushed from the mountain side and joined the river
channel, from which a flock of wild duck started with a prodigious
clamour. The sun rose as we were about half down the valley,
and disclosed the southern wall of Kelat on our right hand, a
magnificent and lofty rampart of rock, springing from the valley
bottom to a height of 700 or 800 feet, as level along the summit
as though pared by a plane, but scarred and fluted down its
absolutely vertical and impervious sides. Four times I passed to
and fro beneath this stupendous barrier, and never failed to think
it one of the most astonishing natural phenomena that I have ever
seen. Its outer slopes or glacis consist of steep acclivities and
shelving spurs, which swell up to it from the plain, and resemble
colossal piles of debris that might have been shot from its summit.
From the point where they terminate the rock rises sheer and
abrupt to its aerial battlements. As this wall encloses Kelat on
the south-east side, it does not catch the morning sun, but remains
plunged in shadow. In the evening, however, towards sundown,
the red sandstone under the descending rays glistens like columns
of porphyry and jasper, and the entire rocky rampart seems to be
on fire.
In descending the valley, where not a soul was to be seen, 1
had observed a place ahead of us where the level top of the rocky
parapet ended abruptly in a jutting point, and its con-
ofArgai 6 tinuity was evidently broken by some sort of rift or
wan Shah we (J r ew nearer this spot, at a distance of
about seven miles from the gorge by which we had entered the
valley, the sides began to converge and close, until presently they
left only the narrowest passage, the bottom of which was filled
by the bed of the stream. Following this natural cutting through
one or two zigzags, we came in sight of a rocky portal, some
twenty yards in width, completely barred by a wall, the only
aperture in which consisted of three arches that admitted the
stream, and were also the sole gateway for any visitor to Kelat.
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 [132r] (270/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x00004d> [accessed 7 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