![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎209r] (420/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0431.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎209r] (420/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [209r] (420/1814)
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
239
and the children’s children of its present inhabitants may live to hear
the railway whistle echoing over their now desert wastes. 1
On the other hand, the children’s children, who are probably by
now beginning to be born, may live and die too without hearing it
at all; and for this reason. A railway down the Helmund means
a railway in Afghanistan ; and as the Amir of that country has not
yet been persuaded to allow a yard of rails to be laid in his do
minions, and as, were such permission forthcoming, other and more
important schemes would probably be first undertaken, the grand
children in the Garmsel may perhaps after all not hear the whistle
in their time.
But there remains another line of advance, shorter because more
direct, and free from the above impediment, because it need not
Nushki run thnmgh Afghanistan at all. It must be remembered
Seistan that the Pishin Bailway system of Great Britain has now
been pushed forward to a point on the northern face of the
Khwajah Amran range, that that range has been pierced by a tunnel,
and that the present terminus, Chaman, is on the open plain, less
than seventy miles distant from Kandahar. Now a line drawn
from this frontier railway, whether at its termination or at some
point short of Ohaman, to Seistan, will be found to pass through
Beluchi—i.e. allied territory solely, and according to the spot ai>
which it strikes the Helmund valley, so would its transit of the
desert be extended or abridged. The point of deviation usually
suggestedis that of Nushki, from which to the Sind-Pishin Bail way
at Chaman is less than one hundred miles, at Quetta less than
ninety, and at Darwaza less than eighty. Across the desert from
Nushki to the Helmund no physical obstacles are encountered.
From the engineer’s point of view the difficulties to be confronted
would not be comparable with those so easily overcome by General
Annenkoff.
We can conceive, without anticipating, a condition of affairs
under which there need be no rivalry between the Afghan and the
F ^ Beluchi routes, but which would admit of the best line
of Afghan- being followed, through whichever territory it ran; and
that would be the free acceptance by Afghanistan of a
British protectorate. By some this step has been recommended
as the only logical corollary, as assuredly it would be the most
1 From the Indus to the Tigris, pp. 205-206.
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 [209r] (420/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x00001b> [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