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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [203v] (409/1814)
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.
228 PERSIA
with, demons and jin.s as well as against the pagan hoides of
Turan and Afrasiab. Perhaps our Saint George of the Dragon
would be a nearer parallel; and just as we stamp the record of
his matchless daring upon our coinage, so do the Persians emblazon
the great feats of Rustam upon gateway and door and pillar.
Seistan emerges into the clearer light of ascertained history in
the time of Alexander the Great, when it was known as Drangiana
E (identical with the land of the Herodotean Sarangians).
history He probably passed this way on his march eastwards to
India; whilst on his return therefrom, though he pursued a more
southerly line himself, through Gedrosia (Mekran) to Carmania
(Kerman), he despatched a light column under Craterus through
Arachotia and Drangiana . 1 Under the Sassanian monarchs Seistan
was a flourishing centre of the Zoroastrian worship, and hither
came the last sovereign of that dynasty, Yezdijird, flying from
the victorious Arabs on his way to his fate at Merv. It was
under the succeeding regime that the province attained the climax
of its material prosperity; and to this—the Arab—period are to
be attributed the vast ruins of which I have previously spoken . 2
In the ninth century a native dynasty known as the Sufari or
Coppersmiths , 3 was founded by one Y akub bin Leith, a potter and
a robber, but a soldier and a statesman 4 who won by arms a short
lived empire that stretched from Shiraz to Kabul, but collapsed
before the iron onset of Mahmud of Ghuzni in the succeeding
century. El Istakhri, visiting Seistan at this epoch, described it
1 The great authority on the early history and inhabitants of Seistan is Sir H.
Rawlinson’s essay, entitled ‘ Notes on Seistan,’ published in the Journal of the
R.G.S., vol. xliii. pp. 272-294 (1873). Compare also the excellent and accurate
summary of Dr. Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris^ pp. 248-262, and Inquiry
into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, 1891. The chief modern inhabitants of
Persian Seistan are the Seistanis, who occupy a servile position among other and
dominant tribes ; the Kaianis claiming descent from the Kai dynasty of Cyrus ;
the Kurd Galis, a branch of the Kurds of Kurdistan, who emigrated and estab
lished the Malik Kurd dynasty of Ghor, 1245-1383, A.D. ; Iranian elements known
as Tajik; and Beluchis, of whom the principal tribes in Seistan are the Sarbandi,
who were transported by Timur to Hamadan, but brought back by Nadir Shah,
and the Shahreki.
2 For an account of them, and particularly of Peshawaran, ride Bellew,
pp. 241, 246-247.
3 \ide an article entitled ‘ The Kings of the Saffariun Dynasty of Nimroz, or
Sijistan,’ by Major H. G. Baverty, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. liv.
(1885) p. 139.
4 Vide Malcolm’s History, vol. i. pp. 148-152.
I
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 [203v] (409/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000010> [accessed 6 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