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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [183r] (368/1814)
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.
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN
187
while, but were too busy elsewhere to trouble themselves with Astra-
bad ; and thus a second time it slipped out of their possession.
Sixty years later the attempt was again renewed. Forster the
first English traveller who made the overland journey from Indil
Agha ^ llro P e in 1784 , and who passed this way, relates
2 Khan an lnterestln g ta le of a Russian squadron, whose com
manding officer in 1781 commenced the erection of a
large fortified building on the shore at Ashraf, the site of the famous
palace of Shah Abbas near the coast, about twenty-five miles west
of Gez. They had reckoned, however, without their host- for
Agha Mohammed Khan Kajar, afterwards Shah of Persia, and at
that time engaged m establishing his authority in Mazanderan,
soon appeared upon the scene. Expressing great pleasure at what
he saw, he invited the Russian officers to dinner, made them
prisoners, and only released them on condition of the guns being
removed and the fort razed to the ground. He even appealed to
the Russian Government for formal amends. 1 Thus ended the
third Russian attempt to gain a foothold upon the mainland of
Pei sin in the south-eastern angle of the Caspian. The fourth attempt,
which I have sketched, is being pursued with less abruptness and
with greater patience. Its solution may perhaps be visible in the
time of many now living.
IN ext X come to the reasons which have actuated the Russians in
then long-sustained desire to obtain an entrance into this corner of
Reasons Of the Persian mainland. It is not that Astrabad of itself
Russian provides either the most convenient or a very easv avenue
of invasion. In the first half of this century different
and more exaggerated opinions prevailed as to its strategical value.
If a line be drawn from Baku to India it will be found to pass
through Astrabad • and accordingly this was the line of advance
that was contemplated both by the Emperors Paul and Napoleon,
when they together discussed and planned an overland expedition
against India in 1800 3 and again by General Khruleff when, in the
course of the Crimean war, he submitted a similar programme of
invasion to the Emperor Nicholas. The immediate objectives were
in either case Meshed and Herat; and in those times the best
1 The most complete account of this incident is to be found in Sir J. M‘Neill’s
Progress and Present Position of Russia in the Past, pp. 33-4. He says that the
Russian officers were thrown into chains and subsequently whipped down to their
ships. Compare B. Dorn’s Caspia (Russian).
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 [183r] (368/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x0000af> [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
- 54r:135v, 147r:149v, 158r:180v, 183r:221v, 224r:224v, 227r:246v, 248r:257v, 259r:260v, 268r:362v, 364r:364v, 367r:388v, 390r:400v, 402r:416v, 419r:432v, 434r:444v, 448r:462v, 464r:471v, 475r:481v, 483r:513v, 516r:525v, 527r:544v, 546r:563v, 566r:598v, 600r:622v, 624r:656v, 658r:665v, 667r:675v, 678r:684v, 687r:688v, 691r:691v, 693r:693v, 695r:708v, 711r:721v, 724r:726v, 728r:729v, 731r:736v, 742r:742v, 746r:757v, 759r:761v, 763r:763v, 765r:765v, 772r:777v, 780r:789v, 793r:794v, 797r:809v, 811r:821v, 825r:840v, 843r:898v
- Author
- Curzon, George Nathaniel, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
- Usage terms
- Public Domain