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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [150v] (303/1814)
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.
with an account of the writer’s experiences with the American army in eastern
Siberia in 1919-20. In this part the personal note is much in evidence, and
there are, in addition to the portrait of the author, full-page plates of his
military decorations. Of the rest of the booh about 100 pages are devoted
to pious platitudes on the evils of war, the hope of universal peace, and
America’s example to the world j and about 150 pages to an account of
Siberia’s resources, incomplete, far from accurate, and dealing mainly with
the Amur region and Sakhalin. It is clear that in spite of his avowed
attempt to gather “ every possible source of information ” the author was
ill-equipped for his task. To begin with, he uses a Mercator map to illustrate
the extent of Siberia, thus exaggerating its area. He eulogizes the climate
of Siberia, c< in all respects like that of the United States, citing merely the
temperatures of July, saying nothing of the length of the Siberian winter, and
disposing of the low winter temperatures as “grossly exaggerated.” He
writes as if latitude alone decided climate, and reminds us that “ Vladivostok
has the same latitude as New York, Spain, and the Mediterranean, the
inference being that all have the same climate. Blagoveshchensk and
Omsk have considerably higher year-around temperatures ” than London
(p. 326). “The world knows little of such surprising facts.” We agree.
Evidently climate is not the author’s special study. The Amur river is hardly
3000 miles long even if head streams are included, and so cannot be navi
gable for 8541 miles (p. 328). The “ Ob-Yenisei” waterway may exist on the
map, but facts are ignored when the author implies the possibility of through
navigation from Irbit to Kyakhta. A little knowledge of Siberia would have
saved him from that mistake. The natives of Siberia are mentioned only as
“ good workers, hospitable, and not knowing the value of money, their labour
is cheap.” The railway map is incomplete, and the town map includes Ust
Yansk with thirty houses and omits Novo-Nikolaevsk with over 60,000
inhabitants, Tyumen, Barnaul, and Biisk. The author seems to think that
Kamchatka is devoted to “ prisons,” and that the “ exile mines ” are or were
in the Taimir peninsula. The chapters on timber are fairly full, but those
on minerals are less satisfactory. Owing to the lack of system in the ortho
graphy it is impossible to locate on an atlas the various coal deposits
enumerated : the map provided is merely an outline sketch. The chapter on
Sakhalin coal (Pilevo river) reads like a company prospectus. In fact, Mr.
Channing would seem to see in Siberia merely a land for exploitation :
“Siberia stands to-day rich, unsettled, and unexploited—as did our United
States, now vast and glorious, a century or more ago”: but he has no con
structive policy to offer. Many valuable books have been written on various
parts of Siberia, but Mr. Channing appears to have discovered only “ a scant
dozen of writers and lecturers” on the country. These he condemns for
giving a false picture of Siberia, eulogizing as the only
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
who tells the
truth Mr. Stefansson, who we believe claims no personal knowledge of
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 [150v] (303/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x00006e> [accessed 7 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
- 150r:150v
- Author
- The Geographical Journal xx Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London xx Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography
- Copyright
- ©Royal Geographical Society
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence