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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [210r] (422/1814)
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 241
confess that to my uninstructed vision the military advantages of
such a line would appear to be considerable. I prefer, however, to
treat it as a commercial scheme, and to assume that a subscribing
public, as well as generals and colonels, wish to be able to form an
opinion.
We will suppose, therefore, that our railway has reached
Seistan. What will it find, and what will it do when it gets there ?
Hostile There are some who protest that the features of the
opinion country are hopelessly unfavourable to commerce or
colonisation. They paint lamentable pictures of the physical
amenities of Seistan. There is a famous wind called the Bad-i-sad-
o-blst-ruz (or wind of 120 days), which blows steadily there from a
north-westerly direction in the months between March and August,
beginning soon after sunrise, abating at midday, and attaining its
maximum strength after sunset. There is also a particularly
horrible kind of fly that bites and even kills horses by its bite.
At times of the year the climate, owing to the extent of marsh
water stagnating under the sun, breeds fevers and ague. The
face of the country is apt to be flooded; and communication is
only kept up by the precarious method of tutins, a kind of raft
made of reeds lashed together and strengthened by tamarisk
stakes . 1 These critics even go so far as to include the whole
country in the scope of their truculent denunciation, and to ask
wherein lies the beauty or the money value of reed-beds, and sand
hills, and swamps.
Less sweeping, because better informed, and worthy of careful
examination (by reason of the unequalled position of its author),
Sir H although unfavourable in character, is the opinion that
Kawiinson } ias peen expressed by Sir H. Hawlinson. He has written
as follows:—
Though possessing great natural advantages, the province of Seistan
is, in its present aspect, a wretchedly unhealthy country, only habitable
for a few months in the year, and hardly worth the expense of govern
ment ^ while in regard to its strategical value, which is the point of
view that has been chiefly regarded in India, great misapprehension
prevails. So far from Seistan being, as has been so often stated, a
convenient base for aggression upon India from the westward, it is in
every respect inferior to Herat for that purpose. “ To the south and
1 For a description and illustration, vide Bellew’s From the Indus to the Tigris,
p. 227.
2 This is true ; but supposing it is thought desirable by an invader for political
VOL. I. R
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 [210r] (422/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x00001d> [accessed 5 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