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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [254v] (511/1814)
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.
310
PERSIA
been an Oriental attribute of royalty; and, in a letter from the
French traveller, Bernier, written in 1663 from the Court of the
Great Mogul at Delhi, where there neither was, nor, so far as we
know, ever had been, fire-worship, I have come across the following-
passage, describing the practice as it prevailed there and then, in
terms which exactly fit the sonorous and portentous discord which
is evoked every evening by the band of brazen-lunged youths to
whom I used to listen with a sort of horrified fascination at
Teheran:—
Over the great gate there is a large raised place which is called
Na^ar Kanay, because that is the place where the Trumpets are, or
rather the Hoboys and Timbals that play together in consort at certain
hours of the day and night. But this is a very odd consort in the ears
of an European that is a new comer, not yet accustomed to it ; for
sometimes there are ten or twelve of these Hoboys, and as many Timbals
that sound all at once together ; and there is a Hoboy which is called
Kama, a fathom and a half long, and of half a foot aperture below ;
as there are Timbals of brass or iron that have no less than a fathom
in diameter, whence it is easie to judge what a noise they must needs
make.
Bernier goes on to say that at first he found this royal music
quite insufferable ; but that afterwards it was very pleasing in the
night time, when it seemed ‘to carry with it something that is
grave, majestical, and very melodious/* Verily de gustibus non est
disjmtandum. The same practice is still kept up by some of the
native princes in India. V
From the Tup Meidan, as I have indicated, two streets run in
a northerly direction towards the outer walls. These streets or
British avenues—for they are planted with poplars—are regarded
Legation ag cr0 wning glory of modern, being, in fact, the
nucleus of European, Teheran. The more westerly of the two,
known to the Persians as Khiaban-i-Dowlet, has been sometimes
described as the Boulevard des Ambassadeurs, from the fact
that the representatives of several foreign Powers have acquired
residences upon it. Of these, by far the most spacious and
imposing is the Legation which shelters the representative ot
Her Britannic Majesty. At the distance of nearly half a mile
from the great square, a fine gateway, upon which Her Majesty’s
initials are carved in stone, conducts on the left hand into a
large wooded enclosure, where nothing at first is visible but a
dense growth of trees, interspersed with winding pathways and
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 [254v] (511/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000076> [accessed 6 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