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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [248r] (498/1814)
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.
TEHERAN
301
Whatever its origin, Teheran must have been for long a small and
insignificant place, for neither of those indefatigable geogiapheis,
El Istakhri and Masudi, whose travels illumine the tenth century,
allude thereto, although they have much to say of the adjacent
Khey. The earliest irrefragable mention is in the pages of Abu
Abdullah Yakut in a.d. 1179-80. His account, which is borne
out by several native historians, 1 represents the primitive Teheranis
as troglodytes, living underground in a semi-savage state, at war
with their neighbours, and in revolt against the sovereign. How
ever this may be, the locality soon became quite famous for its
rivulets and gardens, and a more normal and respectable city
sprang into existence. Hamdallah, in the fourteenth century, de
scribed it as a town of some magnitude and importance, and as
preferable, both for climate and water-supply, to Bhey. Hon Buy di
Clavijo, the Spanish ambassador to Timur, halting here on July 6,
1404, delivered himself of a somewhat balancing opinion :— 2 * *
The city of Teheran was very large, but it had no walls j and it
was a very delightful place, well supplied with everything ; but it was
an unhealthy place, according to the natives, and fevers were very
prevalent.
Shah Tahmasp, the second of the Sefavi dynasty, seems to
have been the first to favour it with a royal patronage ; but Shah
Abbas the Great, having fallen ill there from a surfeit of fruit,
vowed he would never enter the place again. By him the province
and city were placed under the government of a Khan.
At this time Teheran was visited by more than one European ;
and the descriptions of the Italian, Pietro della Valle (1618), and of
Teheran f^ 10 Englishman, Sir Thomas Herbert (1627), are so
under curious as to be worthy of reproduction. I quote from a
Abbas translation of the former that appears in ‘ Pinkerton’s
Travels ’:—
Teheran is a large city, more spacious than Cashan, but not well
peopled, nor containing many houses, the gardens being extremely
large, and producing abundance of fruit of various descriptions, of
such excellent quality that it is sought for by all the circumjacent
1 For a list of them, vide a note by M. Langles,in vol. viii.p. 1G4 of his edition
of Chardin.
2 Narrative of Embassy (Hakluyt Society), p. 98. Watson {History of Persia,
p. 62) must have been unaware of Clavijo when he wrote that Della Yalle was the
first European to visit Teheran,
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 [248r] (498/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000069> [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