Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [281v] (565/1814)
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.
344
PERSIA
village of Zargandeh, a little to the north-west of Gulahek, for
which they claim analogous privileges. The French lease a resi
dence at Tejrish, a mile higher up the mountain, where, in the
court of an imamzadeh, is what claims to be the largest chenar in
Persia. The Turks own grounds in the same neighbourhood. The
Germans were till recently tenants of the English in Gulahek,
and now live at Dizashub. The Austrians are leaseholders at
Rustam abad.
Before I quit the northern outskirts of Teheran I must pay
the tribute of one more parting paragraph to the mighty mountain-
sentinel Demavend. The shapely white cone, cutting so
Demavend k. een jy an p g0 |.p e ^ becomes so familiar and
cherished a figure in the daily landscape, that on leaving Teheran
and losing sight thereof (which, if he be journeying in a southerly
direction, he does not do for 160 miles), the traveller is conscious of
a very perceptible void. Demavend is a volcano, not, as some have
said, wholly extinct, but rather in a state of suspended animation.
There is no record of eruption during the historic period, but
columns of smoke are sometimes seen to ascend from the fissures,
particularly from the Dud-i-Kuh (or Smoky Peak) on the southern
side. It is very strange that no mention is made of the mountain
by Chardin, whose keen vision overlooked but little; or by Pietro
della Valle, who passed almost at its base. Hanway, in 1744,
speaks of it as ‘the great mountain Demoan on which the Persians
say that the Ark rested.’ The first to accomplish the ascent—the
Persians having always believed and declared, like the Armenians
in the case of Ararat, that it was not to be climbed by mortal man
—was Mr., afterwards Sir, W. T. Thomson, in 1836. The French
naturalist, Aucher Floy, met Thomson coming down from the top,,
and himself ascended a few days later. Since that date Demavend
has been frequently ascended by members of the various Legations
in Teheran, the climb being neither difficult nor dangerous, but
intensely fatiguing. For long an irreconcilable divergence between
the trigonometrical and other calculations of its height, arrived at
by different travellers or men of science, prevailed, the estimates
ranging from 14,500 to 21,500 feet. General Schindler, as the
result of a combined trigonometrical and barometrical measurement,
gives the true altitude as 19,400 feet. 1 From the summit, which
^ 1 £ Notes on Demavend/from Proceedings of the R.G.S. (new series), vol. x.
pp. 85-89 (1888); vide also ‘Accounts of Ascent,’ by W. T. Thomson, in 1836„
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 [281v] (565/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x0000ac> [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
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