![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎155r] (312/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0323.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎155r] (312/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [155r] (312/1814)
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-NAMKI i 6B
quently obliged to communicate by telegraph vi q a Mashhad with
Teheran; and it was only when the Shah’s express order arrived that
the Commissioners and their suites were allowed to enter. The
Shah s order is that no one be allowed to enter or leave Kalat with
out the permission either of the Shah himself or of the commandant.
After staying here some days, the Persian and Russian Commis
sioners, who had already settled the frontier from Sarakhs to Kalat,
continued their work westward, and have now, I understand, com
pleted it to the east shore of the Caspian. As one result of this new
frontier settlement the whole of the Atak, up to the foot of the
northern spurs of Kalat, and so as to place in Russian possession the
road from Ashkabad, through a fertile, inhabited, and well-watered
district to Sarakhs, has been ceded to Russia. Lutfabad, though
still Persian territory, is cut off from Kalat by intervening Russian
territory, dhe peasantry here are very bitter on the subject of this
cession of the fertile Atak to Russia. Rut what could the poor Shah
do? What the frontier is from Ashkabad to the Caspian I cannot
yet say, but I believe it to be approximately represented by the Atrek
River. Another outcome of this rectification of the frontier is the
stoppage of rice cultivation among these mountains. The Russians,
having obtained the whole of the Atak, found that its fertility
depended solely on the water supply from the mountains. If the
mountaineers cultivated rice the supply was sensibly diminished. So
the Russian Government reapplied the screw to the Shah, and the
latter ordered the mountaineers to stop cultivating rice. He im
poverishes his own subjects to benefit aliens. The people here are
very indignant about it.
This afternoon I rode out accompanied by a ydwar, or major, of
the Hamadani regiment to Khisht, a village about four and a half
miles north of Gugumaz. The whole of the interior of Kalat con
sists of a confusion of lofty abrupt spurs, of which the highest points
are Baba Kumaili, some ten miles south-east of Gugumaz, and a
nameless eminence a mile north of Khisht overhanging the northern
wall. In a locality of such rugged configuration the roads, on which
the Government has certainly not thought fit to expend any money
are of the roughest kind, mere foot tracks winding along the face of
almost precipitous slopes. Anyone who desires a better road must
go a longish way round to find it. The Persians are proud of this
unique fortress, and yet they take no pains and go to no expense to
insure its impregnability. The five entrances to it (the circumference
of this mighty wall is said to be eighteen farsakhs—about sixty miles
—and the average height above the immediately adjacent country I
should estimate at 500 or 600 feet) should be connected by fairly good
roads permitting of the rapid movement of troops from the central
camp or cantonment to any point. As for the defences of the
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 [155r] (312/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x000077> [accessed 2 April 2025]
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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