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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [236v] (475/1814)
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.
280 PERSIA
A few miles beyond we came to a spot known as the
Chashmeh-i-Gez (or Spring of Tamarisks), where a scanty rivulet
supplies a number of little pools and fertilises some
Abbasabad of g rags> This was a notorious and dreaded
spot in the old days, for hither came the Turkoman robbers to
water their horses after the long mountain ride, and here the luck
less voyager was frequently swooped down upon and caught. It
was close to this spot that Terrier had a brush with them in 1845.
The end of this stage is the remarkable-looking village-fort of
Abbasabad, which rises in tiers upon an eminence, the lofty front
being pierced with numerous windows and crowned with ruined
battlements. Its inhabitants are the converted descendants of a
Georgian colony of a hundred families, who were transported to
this spot by Abbas the Great three centuries ago, as a link in his
chain of military colonies along the northern frontier. He
assigned them an annual allowance in coin (100 Romans) and wheat
(100 kharvars), which after a while was not paid. In the third
generation, being forbidden to use the Georgian tongue, they are
said to have become Mussulmans ; but traces of their mother
language have been detected by some travellers in their dialect.
During the Turkoman reign of terror there was said not to be a
single adult man in Abbasabad who had not more than once been
carried away captive.
A hilly ride over low, barren ridges, and up the gravelly bed of
a valley known as the Dahaneh A1 Hak, brings us to the squalid
Miandasht v ^ a £ e name, where a corps of fifty militiamen
were once stationed to guard the road. Through similar
scenery and over undulating ground we mount 1,000 feet since
leaving Aobasabad, and come at length to the magnificent cara
vanserai of Miandasht 1 (lit. mid-plain), whose lofty embattled walls
and projecting towers resemble a vast fortress, and can be seen
for miles. This was the central point of the ‘ Stages of Terror,’
and here, one half the peril over, the pilgrims foregathered to
exchange felicitations or foment alarms. There is an old
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
built by Shah Abbas, whose name appears above the gateway ; but
the huge castellated structure is a new erection of burnt brick, with
a parapet and walls twenty feet high. A courtyard, in which the
chajpar-khaneh is located, connects the two, and water is provided
Conolly called it Meergundusht; Yon Mierop, more correctly, nearly a
hundred years before, Meondasht.
t
I
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 [236v] (475/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000052> [accessed 15 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