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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [223r] (448/1814)
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.
A, WEDNESDAY, J
thing for this neglected sepulchre. A very !
small annual payment, for example, would
secure a native custodian who would see that
the environment ©f the tomb bore more
resemblance to the 44 sweet garden-side ”
craved by the poet than it does now. Colonel
Yate does not tell us quite as much about the
spot as we should like to know. In the preface
to Fitzgerald’s translation, a story related by
Khwajah Nizami of Samarcand, one of Omar
Khayyam’s pupils, is reprinted thus :—
I often used to hold conversations with my teacher,
Omar Khayyam, in a garden; and one day he said to
me, “ My tomb shall be in a sp it, where the north wind
may scatter roses over it.” I wondered at the words he
spake, but I knew his were no idle words. Years after,
when I chanced to revisit Kishapur, I went to his final
resting-place, and lo ! it was just outside a garden, and
trees laden with fruit stretched their boughs over the
garden wall, and dropped their flowers upon his tomb, so
as the stone was hidden under them.
Is the tomb buried beneath stray blossoms
! nowadays ? Perhaps the next traveller who
wanders to Nishapur will tell us. If not, the
Omar Khayyam Club, when it can tear itself
away from its jimketings, might have some of
the roses the poet loved so well twined once
more about his grave. When Lord Curzon
visited the spot a few years ago, he found more
weeds than roses. He described it as standing
44 in a neglected garden, which once contained
flower-beds and rivulets of water, but is now a
waste of weeds.” The Persians are not very
careful of the tombs of their famous men. At
Shiraz Lord Curzon thought even the tomb of
Hafiz lacking in the distinction which ought to
encompass 44 the last resting-place of a national
hero and the object of adoration to millions.”
Poor Omar Khayyam is in far worse case,
though no one would dub him a 44 national
hero.” Lord Ourzon was unkind enough to call
his works 44 useless baggage.” Thousands of
people, with the Omar Khayyam Club as their
mouthpiece, profess to think differently ; but
they might appropriately allow their homage to
take a more practical form than it has hitherto
done. We have not much sympathy with the
intense adulation lavished upon Omar Khay
yam in England and America. It has savour
ed too much of insincere affectation. Omar’s
philosophy of life, propagated among persons
who forget that in his other self he was a
famous man of science, 44 winning knowledge
of every kind,” might have questionable effects
in this too literal age. But beneath the fuss
about Omar which is merely fashionable and
casual, there undoubtedly exists a genuine
interest in the old astronomer-poet. Among his
less noisy admirers, the trifling sum necessary
to adorn his resting-place might be readily
raised ; and the Consul-G-enera! at Meshed,
when next he tours into the Nishapur hills,
would doubtless be willing to see that the
money was properly expended 0
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 [223r] (448/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000037> [accessed 6 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/33
- Title
- Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Questionby George Curzon, with Inserted Papers
- Pages
- 222r:223v
- Author
- Unknown
- Usage terms
- Public Domain