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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [274r] (550/1814)
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
331
prices, and exhibit a stolid indifference to the offers of the would-be
purchaser. The sale of curiosities, carpets, and stuffs is almost
wholly conducted by dellals, or itinerant dealers, who bring their
stores on donkey-back to the residences in the European quarter.
From them must be procured the silks, brocades, or velvets, the
metal work or enamel work, the embroideries or carpets, the painted
mirrors or pen-cases, which the collector may wish to take back to
Europe. The foremost among these dellals, alike for the quality
of their wares and the scale of their prices, appear to be the Jews.
But the passing traveller will find it difficult to procure anything
of much value, the rarities being commonly bespoken in advance
by resident customers, and some weeks being required before a
fresh stock can be collected by the dealers among their private
clients. Such a place as a shop whither, after European fashion,
one can go and see a large variety of articles spread out, before
making one’s choice, is unknown in Persia.
The street scenes in Teheran are not to be compared, from the
artistic point of view, with those that may be witnessed either in
the great [Indian cities or in the old capitals of Cential
street life ^ Ka j ar Dynasty, a hundred years ago,
came in a new and soberer fashion in dress as well as a change of
rulers. The turban has gradually disappeared and is worn only
by merchants, hajis, seyids, and mullahs. The flowing robes and
daring colours of the East, such as one may see alike in Benares
and Bokhara, have been exchanged for tight-fitting garments of
European or semi-European cut, and for neutral tints such as dark
blues, browns, greens and greys, with a very plentiful admixture
of uncompromising black. There is manifold jostling in the stieets
and bazaars, and everywhere are the contrast and variety so in
separable from Asiatic life, and from a crowd wheie thiee out o
four men are mounted ; but there are not the kaleidoscopic change
and glitter that bespeak the true and unredeemed Orient. A good
deal of colour, however, as well as of noise, is lent to the street i e
of the capital by the number of soldiers, in every variety of uniform,
who are seen lounging about the streets, and by the militaiy anm,
which play in the public squares, 1 their favourite tune being the
1 In 1887 an entire set of instruments for a band of sixty persons was pre
sented by the British Government to the Shah ; but the Pei sian bands laMn^ ee
taught to play French instruments, which are in a different key or pitch, they
were relegated to the Museum.
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 [274r] (550/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x00009d> [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