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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [232r] (466/1814)
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.
FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN 273
wooden pannier, with an arched framework for a hood, in which men
as often as women were curled up beneath mountains of quilts. The
donkey, however, was the favourite beast of burden. Tiny animals
would bear the most stupendous loads, with pots and pans, guns,
and water-bottles hanging on either side, and with the entire
furniture of a household on their backs; the poultry of the owner
perched with ludicrous gravity upon the top of all. It is a
common thing for the poorer pilgrims to take shares in a donkey
and to vary riding with walking. In the early morning the
equestrians would often be seen fast asleep upon their asses, lying
forward upon their necks, and occasionally falling with a thump on
to the ground. Each Ixifiloh would, have a caravan-bashi, or leader,
who not infrequently bore a red pennon fluttering from a lance. It
w T as often difficult to discern the men’s faces as they rode by
shrouded in huge woollen blanket-coats, pulled up over their heads,
while the stiff, empty arm-holes stood out on either side like mon
strous ears. But, if it was not easy to discern the males, still less
could be distinguished of the shapeless bundles of blue cotton that
were huddled upon the donkeys’ backs, and which chivalry almost
forbade me to accept for the fairer sex. I confess to having once
or twice, with intentional malice, spurred my horse to a gallop, as
I was overtaking some party of wayfarers thus accompanied: for,
to see the sober asses kick up their heels and bolt from the track
as they heard the clatter of horse-hoofs behind, to observe the
amorphous bundles upon their backs shake and totter in their seats,
till shrieks were raised, veils fell, and there was imminent danger
of a total collapse, was to crack one’s sides with sorely-needed
and well-earned laughter. There would usually be an assortment
of beggars in every band, who would beg of me in one breath and
curse me for an infidel in the next, or of tattered dervishes, who
in Mussulman countries are beggars in their most offensive
guise.
Not that every company we met or passed were pilgrims on
pious mission bent. Far from it. Sometimes we would encounter
inured to the telescopic contractions common in the East. Adam Olearius, the
Secretary of the Embassy from the Duke of Holstein in 1637, graphically described
his woes as follows : ‘ The Physician and myself were set in hetzaweha upon the
same camel, whereby we were put to great inconveniences—one proceeding from
the violent motion caused by the going of thah great Beast, which at every step
gave us a furious jolt; and the other from the insupportable stink of the camels,
the infectious smell of whom came full into our noses.’
\
VOL. I.
T
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 [232r] (466/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000049> [accessed 5 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