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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [204r] (410/1814)
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.
THE SEISTAN QUESTION
229
as a country of populous cities, abundant canals, and great
wealth ; 1 among its natural resources being included a rich gold
mine that subsequently disappeared in an earthquake. In the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Seistan, like most of its
neighbours, experienced the two successive visitations of those
scourges of mankind, Jenghiz Khan and -Timur Beg, being turned
from a smiling oasis into a ruinous waste, and suffering a murdeious
blow from which it has never recovered. The Sefavi dynasty
repeopled it under the local rule of the ancient reigning family
of Kaiani, who claimed descent from Kai Kobad, the first
Achcemenian king. But the march of time brought round the
fated cycle of injury and desolation; and at the hands both of the
Afghan invaders of 1722, and of Nadir Shah who expelled them,
it completed its chronic tale of suffering. Kemaining a portion
of the mighty empire of the Afshar usurper till his death m
1747, it then passed to the sceptre of Ahmed Shah Abdah, the
adventurous captain who, imitating his masters exploits, iode oft
and founded the Durani empire in Afghanistan. From this epoch
dates its appearance on the stage of modern politics, and during
the last thirty years upon the chess-board of Anglo-Indian
diplomacy . 2
After the death of Ahmed Shah, Seistan continued to pay
tribute to his successor, Timur Shah, till his death in 1793. In
Later the break-up of the Durani dominion that followed, it
history became alternately attached to the fortunes of Heiat
and Kandahar, the Persian Government having its hands too full
elsewhere to be able to attempt its recovery. From about the
year 1851, however, after the death of Yar Mohammed of Herat,
Persia, taking advantage of the disorder and disunion that pre
vailed in Afghanistan, began to revive and to press her claims.
She now remembered that Nadir Shah, though a Turkoman
usurper, had been king of Persia, and that Seistan had. paid to
him the tribute which it paid to Persian kings before him. Ali
Khan, the local ruler, was persuaded to hoist the Persian flag,
and received in return a Persian princess in marriage. This was
at about the time of the Persian expedition against Herat in 1857
1 Oriental Geography, pp. 203-209.
2 An anonymous History of Seistan has been written in the course of the as
half century in Persian by Reza Kuli Rhan, the most accomplished and voluminous
of recent Persian authors.
f
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 [204r] (410/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000011> [accessed 9 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