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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [241r] (484/1814)
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
289
of 30,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
if he would continue him in the government.
The Prince pocketed the money and carried off the chief to
Meshed, the local Governor taking advantage of his absence to
capture the fort. Like most other places in the neighbourhood, it
is now abandoned and is rapidly falling to pieces.
Throughout this day, and, indeed, in all parts of my journey, I
passed several of those great tumuli, or barrows, which have so
puzzled the traveller in North Persia. They consist of
immense circular or oval mounds, from fifty to a hundred
feet in height, supporting, as a rule, no traces of buildings, but
composed of solid masses of clay, worn smooth by the long passage
of time. Local tradition, of course, assigns them to Jamshid—
which is tantamount to a confession of utter ignorance as to their
origin. By some they have been regarded as the sites of fire-
temples, raised in the old days of Zoroastrian worship. I entertain
very little doubt that they were mostly, if not all, raised as cita
dels or forts of defence for villages, long since perished, below. They
are invariably to be found upon the plains where Nature has
provided no ready means of defence, and where artifice was con
sequently required to create them. Many still exhibit upon their
summits the crumbling, shapeless walls of the mud citadels by
which they were once crowned. Good illustrations of this stage
of existence are visible at Bidesht, near Shahrud, and at Jajarm,
between Bujnurd and Shahrud. Where the tumuli (or kurgans,
as they are called) are smooth and bare, the superstructure has
entirely perished. A long line of these mounds is still traceable
along the valley of the Gurgan, starting from Gumesh Tepe (or
Silver Hill)—an obviously artificial erection—on the shores of the
Caspian, and forming part of a triple line of earth ramparts,
attributed to Alexander the Great, which extends as far as Bujnurd.
The regularity of their occurrence in some places, as, for instance,
between Kazvin and Teheran, has led to the plausible conjecture
that they may also have been used as signal-stations, or beacons,
from one camp to another. But, in either case, their purpose was
military. There seems to be no ground for regarding any of them
as sepulchral barrows.
The road from Ghushah lay over a desolate and uncultivated
plain, and then gradually mounted, until, having traversed an easy
pass in the hills, it suddenly dropped down upon a gloomy hollow,
where stood the
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
and posthouse of Ahuan. The existing-
VOL. i. u
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 [241r] (484/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x00005b> [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