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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [154r] (310/1814)
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-NADIBI
161
not possessed of a large bump of curiosity. It is decidedly annoying,
when you want to dress, bathe, dine, breakfast, read, write, or do
anything else for which privacy is desirable, to find the door of your
humble 80-pound tent besieged by a dirty crowd of all ages, but not
sexes. Women hereabouts are supposed to wish neither to see nor
to be seen. The Turk and Kurd peasantry of this mountain tract are
by no means well to do, although they cultivate with most exemplary
industry not only every square foot of their narrow valleys, but also
the tops and slopes of every open hill blessed with soil fit for cultiva
tion. The hill soil, being dependent on rain alone, is known as
claima. Barley is generally grown on it. The yield naturally depends
on the rainfall, but taken all round is poor. Land watered by natural
streams is called in Persia zamin-i-khdlisa or Padshahi (Crown lands).
Land watered by karez* (artificial subterraneous channel tapping a
spring at the foot of a hill) is called zamin-i-maliki (private property).
The former pays a higher tax than the latter. I believe that no tax
at all is exacted on daima, the yield being poor, and rain being
regarded as the gift of God, common to all. My guide, himself a
small Kurd chief from Charam, near Kalat, said: “We are like
sheep dogs who guard a flock, and who for their pains get naught but
a few bare bones. It is the shepherd or owner who reaps all the
profits. But for us the Turcomans would long ago have laid waste
Mashhad and its fertile neighbourhood. It is we who have held the
Turcomans in check, while others have sat in peace and amassed
wealth.” My guide himself had been a prisoner at Bokhara, having
been captured by Tekes and sold for fifty
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
(about £17). After
nine months he escaped on foot from Bokhara, having first killed his
master’s son, who seemingly stood in the way of his escape, and
found his way in the garb of a darwish to Karki on the Oxus, and
then through Maimena and Balamurghab to Persia. Two of his
brothers, he tells me, are still there. They were released from
slavery by the Kussians, but having married in Bokhara, elected to
remain there. What struck me most in my guide’s allusions to the
good old days of the Alaman, or Turcoman raids, was that he evidently
regarded it as a perfectly fair give-and-take sort of business. He
said, “We used to raid on them and they used to raid on us.
Prisoners were taken on both sides, and were exchanged in due
course. For a man of wealth or position, two or three men of the
lower classes would be given.” He spoke with no expressions of
bitterness against the Turcomans. He evidently considered that he
had given as good as he took. The fear of the Turcoman that per
vades the baser grades of Persians—than whom none are, perhaps,
lower than the inferior classes in Mashhad, Teheran, etc. evidently
finds no echo in the hearts of these highlanders. Such Turks and
* Persice Kandt.
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 [154r] (310/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000075> [accessed 4 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