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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [193r] (388/1814)
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 COMMEECE OF KHOEASAN 207
(trading from London) succeeded in reaching Meshed. One of
them, Mungo Graham or Graeme, was murdered on his return
journey at Semnan in 1743. 1 The other, Yon Mierop, resided for
two years and three months in Meshed, from 1743-5, but met
with little success, for he only sold 22,000 crowns, or 5,500^. worth
of goods. He returned in safety, but no one else was found to
repeat so hazardous an experiment; and within three years’ time
every British merchant had left the country, only too glad in those
stormy times to have escaped with his life.
Such was the history of the first attempt at British trade with
Meshed. During this century the- shifting of the capital to
Later Teheran, the greater security of communication, and the
conditions re -opening of the Bunder Abbas route from the Persian
Gulf on the south, have brought Meshed once again within the
sphere of Butish or Anglo-Indian commercial enterprise ; while
her successive encroachments upon the north have given Russia
a more than corresponding advantage in that direction. Earlier
travellers^ have from time to time reported the growing influence of
Russian trade in these parts , 2 and Khorasan has, not without
appaient justice, been regarded in recent years as irretrievably
lost to the British merchant.
At first sight this alarm would appear to be well-founded. A
visitor to the bazaars of any of the important towns of Khorasan,
Apparent from Astrabad to Meshed (such as Shahrud, Sebzewar,
ascend - 11 Nishapur, Bujnurd, Shirwan, and Kuchan), will find
\ncy the evidences of Russian influence very obvious to the
outer eye. The shops appear to be laden with Russian cottons,
calicoes, and chintzes, with Russian sugar, crockery, and hardware,
and, indeed, with all the cheaper necessaries of civilised life.
Entering Khorasan, either via Bunder-i-Gez, Astrabad, and
Shahrud, or by Ashkabad and Kuchan, these goods flow in a
great wave from one- end of the province to the other, and com
pletely drown any foreign competition in the native markets.
French sugar used to be imported from Marseilles, via Bombay.
1 Ibid., vol. i. p. 358; vol. ii. p. 24.
Compare Colonel Val. Baker, Clouds in the East, p. 305, ‘ The whole trade
of Central Asia is slowly drifting into Russian hands;’ and E. O’Donovan, The
Mere Oasis, vol. i. p. 480, ‘Russia completely controls the trade of Meshed in
European goods, except perhaps in sugar, a little of which conies from Marseilles.
Cloths, linen and cotton goods, porcelain, glass trays, lamps, and other manufac
tured European articles are 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 [193r] (388/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x0000c3> [accessed 4 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
- 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