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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [137r] (280/1814)
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.
KALAT-I-NADIRI
3^7
Shattered Ravine, where it is a mere rock staircase among the huge
boulders that are scattered in wild confusion, then winds up other rugged
defiles, and emerges at 17 miles into the comparatively open valley of
Bulghur. The inhabitants of all these villages are of Turkish stock,
and like highlanders in all lands, are a virile race compared with the
Meshed city folk.
Next day’s march began with the Zao-i-Pir Zan, or Gorge of the Old
Woman, a name that Persians are wont to give to peculiarly rugged and
forbidding features of their roads. The gorge pierces the southern of
the two great spurs which form the eastern continuation of the Hazar
Masjid range. The track led up the rocky bed of the stream between
precipices so close together that there was hardly room to lead our horses
over the bare slippery rock. We emerged at length upon green sward,
bright with spring flowers, and the track led on over grassy spurs, skirting
the northern range, the Kara Dagh, and gradually leading up to the
Duiuk Boyun (Camel’s Neck) Pass.
A grand view opens up eastwards, the distant frontier mountains
above the valley of the Hari Rud framed between precipitous crags.
The immediate ascent to the pass is a steep rocky zigzag : the summit,
at 10 J miles from Bulghur, a sharply cut ridge ; and the descent begins
immediately into a bleak treeless valley, in which the village of Vardeh
is seen far below.
The Turkman headman received us hospitably, and it was noon
before we resumed the march. The first few miles were easy going over
barren uplands, past the village of Bagh Kand, until we reached the edge
of a deep re-entrant in the escarpment by which the frontier range falls
to the northern lowlands.
Through the gap formed by the re-entrant we gained our first view
of the great south-western rampart of Kalat-i-Nadiri, The path led
steeply down the deep-cut valley, at first enclosed by sheets of bare rock
at a high angle, then narrowing between sheer precipices. The slippery
surface worn smooth by the stream made the going dangerous for shod
horses. Strata tilted on end jutted vertically from the face of the precipice,
as shown in Major Sykes’ photograph; but the rugged framework
enclosed pictures of soft beauty. Hawthorn in full flower scented the
air, and honeysuckle grew in profusion.
At 9 miles from Vardeh the valley of the Issik Su (Warm Water) is
reached, and the path follows the stream through a defile between fine
crags. It is this passage which is called the Darband-i-Giaour, and not
the upper part of the valley. At its exit is the pleasantly situated village
of Hammam Kala. Here a reception party from Kalat-i-Nadiri awaited
us, and escorted by them we rode fast down the broad green valley with
the great rampart of Kalat-i-Nadiri on our right, lofty serrated mountains
on our left. The marvel of this, the longest face of the natural fortress, is
its straightness and regularity, 15 miles from north-west to south-east at
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 [137r] (280/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000057> [accessed 5 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
- 136r:139v
- Author
- Tod, John Kelso
- Copyright
- ©Royal Geographical Society
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence