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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [135r] (276/1814)
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 133
summit, had been artificially scarped by some previous occupant,
no doubt by Nadir Shah, so as to form a sort of rocky ledge or
pathway running along the face, and defended at intei \ als by
ruined circular towers. There were two such rocky ledges, one
about thirty feet above the other. I scrambled on to the lower
and pursued it as far as the V-shaped gap. There were only about
thirty feet of rock above me; and it was to be climbed. But the
face of the rock was very steep and smooth ; I was alone, and
though I could have scrambled up it was the kind of place that
would have been very awkward to come down from again.
Accordingly I resigned the attempt. With the aid of a friend
and a rope it could easily have been managed, but from what I
know of the interior of Kelat I doubt whether the panorama
afforded from the top of the wall would be as striking as might be
expected from its external configuration.
On my way back, however, I climbed the highest mountain in
the neighbourhood, the name of which I do not know, but whose
Bird’s-eye elevation is far higher than the perimeter of Kelat; and
eireumfer 6 from there my ambitions were so far and unexpectedly
ence realised that, though I could not see the interior level of
Kelat, the angle of vision being too obtuse, I could trace the entire
circuit of its walls from east to west on both sides; the southern
wall, which I had attempted to climb, appearing from the height
on which I stood to be the lower of the two, and the summit of the
north wall rising above it on the further side. From this point I could
follow, without difficulty, the whole southern rampart, nearly twenty
miles in a straight line, running as regularly as though it had been
built by design, and scarped and scarred along its vertical sides
down to the point where the buttress-slopes shelved away to the
valley. If in their war with Olympian Zeus the Titans had ever
had occasion to build for themselves an unassailable retreat, such
might well have been the mountain fortress that they would have
reared. I made a sketch from this point of the entire circumference,
which is reproduced on the next page. 1 The mountains in
the foreground are the range that separate the valley of Issurcha
from the valley that leads down to Argawan Shah’s gate.
And now, having related with so much minuteness what I did
see, I propose to describe from a variety of sources, some of which
1 Though my own sketch is poor enough, I cannot say that I think at all an
adequate or faithful idea of Kelat is given by the drawings of Sir C. MacGregor.
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 [135r] (276/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000053> [accessed 13 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