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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [253r] (508/1814)
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 307
Pera. Its most distinctive features retain an individuality of their
own, differing from what I have noticed anywhere else in Central
Asia. Jeypore is sometimes extolled as the finest specimen of a
native city, European in design, but Oriental in structure and
form, that is to be seen in the East. The ‘ rose-red city over
which Sir Edwin Arnold has poured the copious cataract of a truly
Telegraphese vocabulary struck me, when I was in India, as a
pretentious plaster fraud. No such impression is produced by the
Persian capital. Though often showy, it is something more than
gilt gingerbread ; and, while surrendering to an influence which the
most stolid cannot resist, it has not bartered away an originality
of which the most modern would not wish to deprive it.
In the northern part of the new town, but outside the line of
the old walls, is situated the principal square or public place of
The Tup Teheran. This is known as the Tup Meidan or Meidan-i-
Meidan Tup-Khaneh—i.e. Gun Square or Artillery Square, from
the fact that it is surrounded by the artillery barracks, and that it
contains a park of rusty cannon, dating from an obsolete past. The
length of this fine meidan, which is cobble-paved, is 270 yards,
its width 120. On the longest, i.e. the northern and southern,
sides, it is surrounded by low one-storeyed buildings, where the
guns are housed and the men quartered ; on the western side is the
Arsenal, in front of which some twenty-five venerable smooth-bores,
24-pounders, and wholly useless, rest upon their ancient car
riages. The eastern face is entirely occupied by a fine building
with an ornamental plaster fapade, which is now tenanted by the
Imperial Bank of Persia. In the middle of the square is a great
tank, fenced round by an iron railing, with some cast-iron
statuettes, and with four big guns planted at the corners and
covered with tarpaulins. Its most distinctive features, however,
are the gateways by which it is entered or left, and which are re
garded by the Persians as triumphs of modern architectural skill.
They are certainly, as the accompanying illustration will show,
very imposing and original structures, and, with their light arcades
and fantastic fronts, present a handsome appearance from a dis
tance, though a closer scrutiny of the coarse tile-work with which
they are faced is apt to destroy the illusion. Of these gates the
two principal and most striking are those which lead from the two.
southern angles of the square, opening on to streets which skirt the
outer wall of the Ark, or citadel, on either side, the entire intervening
x 2
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 [253r] (508/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000073> [accessed 5 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