![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎234r] (470/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0481.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎234r] (470/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [234r] (470/1814)
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.
►
£
I
FKOM MESHED TO TEHERAN
275,
role, democracy is the prevailing law in the economy of the serai
of Persia.
Perhaps the weirdest and most impressive of the many unwonted
memories that the traveller carries away with him from such-like-
Camels by travel in the East is the recollection of the camel
night caravans which he has encountered at night. Out of the-
black darkness is heard the distant boom of a heavy bell. Mourn
fully, and with perfect regularity of iteration, it sounds, gradually
swelling nearer and louder, and perhaps mingling with the tones
of smaller bells, signalling the rearguard of the same caravan. The-
big bell is the insignia and alarum of the leading camel alone.
But nearer and louder as the sound becomes, not another sound,,
and not a visible object, appear to accompany it. Suddenly, and
without the slightest warning, there looms out of the darkness, like
the apparition of a phantom ship, the form of the captain of the
caravan. His spongy tread sounds softly on the smooth sand, and,
like a great string of linked ghouls, the silent procession stalks by
and is swallowed up in the night.
And how wonderful and ever-present is the contrast in Eastern
travel to all life and movement at home ! No heavy carts and
The lumbering wagons jolt to and fro between the farmyard
poetry of and the fields. ISio light vehicles and swift equipages
dash past upon macadamised roads. Alas ! there are no
roads ; and, if no roads, how much less any vehicles or wagons !
Thatched roofs and tiled cottages, lanes and hedgerows and trim
fields, rivers coursing between full banks, beyond all the roar and
sudden, smoky rush of the train—these might not exist in the
world at all, and do not exist in the world of the Persian,
straitened and stunted, but inexpressibly tranquil in his existence.
Here, all is movement and bustle, flux and speed ; there, every
thing is imperturbable, immemorial, immutable, slow.
Between Mazinan and Shahrud, a distance of approximately one
hundred miles, intervene four stages, which were formerly known
Turkoman as ^ ie ‘ Stages of Terror.’ Here the western extremities:
forays 0 f the Khorasan mountains, pushed out in long spurs of
diminishing height from the knotted mountain cluster that sur
rounds the head-waters of the Atrek, descend on to the plain
and the road pursues a winding course through their lower folds
and undulations. This entire mountain region was once desolated
by Turkoman bandits, and through these valleys and ravines they
T 2
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 [234r] (470/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x00004d> [accessed 4 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