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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [243v] (489/1814)
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.
294 PERSIA
the claimants to the distinction of being the veritable Pylae Caspian
are four in number. There is a pass called Teng-i-Shemshirbur,
(or the Pass of the Sword Cut—the tradition being that it was hewn
in the rock by one slash of All’s scimetar), on the upper road from
the capital to Shahrud, and just under the shadow of the Shahkuh,
the highest peak of the Elburz, between Astrabad and Shahrud.
This pass is 150 yards long and only 18 feet wide, between
two perpendicular walls of limestone. Napiei says, there can be
little doubt that this is the Caspian Gates/ On the other hand,
there can be no doubt that Napier is wrong. For, not only do
neither the features nor length correspond in any particular, but
the Sword Cut Pass is about 200 miles too far to the east. Burnes L
selected as his candidate the Gaduk Pass in the Elburz, north of
Firuzkuh, through which runs the ordinary road to Mazanderan.
Among the northern passes leading from Irak Ajemi into the
Caspian provinces, those of Sawachi, near Firuzkuh, and the Teng-ser-
enza, just beyond that place, have also been mentioned, both of them
being precipitous rocky defiles of a character that might be supposed
to justify the name of gates. 2 Morier, however, who visited them,
and was at first impressed by the verisimilitude of their features,
soon recognised that, in addition to other respects, they failed in
the essential element of distance, being ninety miles east of Teheran,
and, consequently, not within a day’s march even for Alexander.
Accordingly, he suggested, and Fraser, Ferrier, and Eastwick have
supported with much wealth of argument, the choice of the pass to
which my journey has now brought me, between the plains of Khar
and Yeramin.
This pass is known as the Sirdara, or Ser Dereh, or Sardari,.
probably Ser-i-dareh (i.e. Head of the Valley). It is entered by a
The Sir- narrow passage or gateway on the south-east, and winds
dara Pass tortuously through a projecting spur of the Elburz range,,
that here runs forward in a south-westerly direction into the great
central desert. My notes represent it as being nearly six miles in
length. 3 A salt stream flows down the valley bottom, and encrusts
its banks with a white efflorescence. At times the pass opens into
a little plain, and then again contracts. In the centre is an old
1 Travels into Bokhara, vol. iii. p. 111 . 2 Morier’s Second Journey, p. 365.
3 The extent to which miscalculation of distance is possible when the
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
has ridden on horseback, and has perhaps composed his description from memory
afterwards, may be judged from the varying estimates of the length of this pass.
Ferrier says 2 f miles, Eastwick 4, and O’Donovan 12 .
desert 6 ^
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forty miles-
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writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
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it impossil
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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 [243v] (489/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000060> [accessed 2 April 2025]
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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