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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [153v] (309/1814)
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.
160
KALAT-I-NADIM
natural and easy means of access to the summit. A mile or two
farther on may be seen on the right hand side of, and twenty or thirty
feet above, the path a large boulder, the face of which, having been
smoothed, bears an Arabic inscription. I was unable to ascertain
the meaning of it. Opposite this boulder is a striking work of nature,
called the Kuh-i-Panjmana, or the Five-Maund Mountain.* This
little trifle consists of a great precipitous promontory of solid rock, a
sheer drop of about 500 feet, more properly, perched on the top
of, say, 1,000 feet of bare steep slope. Of course, it has a legend.
Once upon a time there came hither a mighty monarch, attended by
a numerous retinue. When the monarch saw this curious promon
tory of rock, he turned to one of his courtiers and directed him to go
up and weigh it. “ Certainly,’’ said the courtier, “ if your Majesty
will be pleased to provide me with the scales.” So it was called the
” Five-Maund [about 35 pounds] Mountain,” just as we talk of
London as the “ little village,” or the 81-ton gun as the ” Woolwich
Infant.” The next village beyond Al, on or near the direct road to
Kalat (there are numbers of villages in the adjacent valleys) is
Bulghar (forty-seven miles). Thence to Wardeh is the tug-of-war
for the mules. First comes the Dahana-i-Zaupirzan (this too has its
legend, but it is not quite suited to the pages of the Central Asian
Society’s Journal), four miles of rocky gorge. In some places the
perpendicular walls of rock are only seven to eight feet apart; in
others the channel of the stream, which often is the only possible
road, is strewn with stones and boulders, or composed of water-worn
slippery rock. The crowning task is the Dewa Boini Kotal, and
that I have already described. Beyond it are passed the villages of
Wardeh (sixty-one miles) and Baghkan (sixty-four miles). From
Baghkan the road traverses two successive gorges—charming enough
in their way, but not exactly as easy as a king’s highroad should be—
and at the seventy-ninth mile the entrance to Kalat, known as
Larwaza-i-Arghawan Shah, is reached. From there to the village of
Gugumaz, where the Sartip, or Commandant, resides within the
fortress, is four miles. Total, eighty-three miles.
In passing through this country the traveller meets with every
civility from the inhabitants, who are almost all of Turkish or Kurdish
race, and speak those languages. Their manners are somewhat
rough and familiar, but they are none the less obliging. In every
village I obtained without any difficulty milk, eggs, mutton, chickens,
etc., for self and servants, and barley and dry fodder for my horse
and the mules. Now I have in India come across villages where
the inhabitants, from sheer pig-headed ill-will, refused to sell any
thing whatever. I was also pleased to find that these people were
* Colonel Tod in the Royal Geographical Society’s Journal for November,
1923 , gives a picture of it.
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 [153v] (309/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000074> [accessed 20 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
- 151r:157v
- Author
- Yate, Arthur Campbell
- Usage terms
- Public Domain