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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [234v] (471/1814)
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.
276
PERSIA
dashed down in headlong foray upon the helpless bands of travellers
making their way to or from Meshed. Sweeping up whatever
they could get, driving off the animals, and chaining a few score
of captives to their saddle-bows, they galloped off into their
mountain-fastnesses with as much precipitation as that with which
they had come. Already, along the route which I have described
from Meshed to Mazinan, I had seen frequent proofs of their
dreaded presence, in the shape of those small circular towers,
dotted all over the plain like chessmen on a chessboard, which,
from Ashkabad to Meshed, from Sarakhs to Farrah, and from
Shahrud almost to Kum, marked the chosen hunting-grounds of
these terrible moss-troopers of the border. In parts almost every
field had one of these structures, into which, as soon as a rolling
cloud of dust revealed the apparition of the enemy, the husband
man crept by a small hole at the bottom, and, rolling two big stones
against the aperture, waited till the scourge had swept past.
Similar evidence of the terror they inspired, and of the state of
siege which self-preservation imposed upon their possible victims,
is forthcoming along the entire belt of country above named, in
the rude forts erected in every village as a refuge for the in
habitants. Once behind a mud wall the miserable peasants were
safe; but woe betide them if caught in the open country—death or
the slave-markets of Khiva and Bokhara were then the certain issue.
What the luckless peasant faced every day the timid pilgrim
looked to encounter on this fateful stretch of road which I am
Military about to describe. The most elaborate precautions were
eseort taken against the danger. An escort used to leave
Shahrud and Mazinan twice a month, consisting of a number of
so-called foot-soldiers armed with matchlocks, and a mounted
detachment accompanying an old gun. At Miandasht the two
escorts met and relieved each other. The support of the Mazinan
detachment, consisting of 150 matchlock men and twelve artillery
men with their horses, was imposed, in lieu of the ordinary taxes,
upon the villagers of that place; and even so late as 1872, when
the Seistan Boundary Commissioners passed this way on their
return to Teheran, they had to travel with an escort of eighty match
locks, a 4-^—pounder dragged by six horses, and 150 to 200 mounted
sowars, between Mazinan and Shahrud.
Gonolly, Fraser, Eastwick, 0 Donovan, and other writers who
journeyed with the pilgrim caravans have left inimitable accounts
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 [234v] (471/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x00004e> [accessed 17 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