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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [283r] (568/1814)
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 345
consists of a crater filled with snow and ice, a horizon of 50,000
square miles is unrolled in clear weather. This is what Mr.
Stack, in 1881, had to say of the view :—
The crater is some 200 yards in diameter, girt with a ring of yellow
rocks of nearly pure sulphur, exhaling a pestiferous smell. The hollow
is entirely filled up with snow. From the rocks Teheran can be seen,
and the Kohrud Mountains 160 miles south of it ; the Great Kavir
can be dimly perceived through its haze of heat to the south-east;
while to the north—a faint blue field under the horizon—stretches the
Caspian behind the cloudy forests of Mazanderan. On the right hand
and on the left were mountains of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet in height ;
we over-looked them all with their thinly-scattered snows. But what
a lifeless prospect ! Teheran so many miles away, and all the rest
mere desert and crag and desolation, with here and there a village lost
on the bare mountain-side.
%
I now pass to the environs of Teheran on the south, and shall
conclude this chapter with some brief notes about the sole localities
Southern there invite attention—viz. the shrine of Shah Abdul
environs Azim, the remains of Rhey, or Rhages, and the ruins of
Veramin. A Persian city—much more a Persian capital—is ill off
that cannot boast of some noted imamzadeh, or saint’s tomb
(literally, descendant of an Imam), to serve as an object of pil
grimage and magnet of attraction.. Teheran is thus endowed in
respect of the mausoleum and sanctuary of Shah Abdul Azim.
Reposing beneath a golden-plated dome, whose scintillations I had
seen from afar while riding towards the city, the remains of
this holy individual are said to attract an annual visitation of
300,000 persons. I find that most writers discreetly veil their
ignorance of the identity of the saint by describing him as ‘ a holy
Mussulman, whose shrine is much frequented by the pious Tehe-
ranis.’ It appears, however, that long before the advent of Islam
this had been a sacred spot, as the sepulchre of a lady of great
sanctity, in which connection it may be noted that the shrine is
still largely patronised by women. Here, after the Mussulman
Journal of the II. G S. vol. viii. p. 109; by R. T. Thomson and Lord S. Kerr,
in 1858, in Proceedings of the R.G.S. vol. iii. p. 2 ; by R. G. Watson, in ibid.
vol. vi. p. 103; and by E. Stack, Six Months in Persia, vol. ii. cap. vii. For
further information, ride a learned lecture by Dr. Tietze, ‘ Vulcan Demavend,’ in
the Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft fiLr Erdhunde zu Berlin, 1878 ; and Frh. v.
Carl Rosenburg, ‘ The Lar Valley and Demavend ’ in Mittheil. der K. und K. Geogr.
Gesell. Wien, 1876, pp. 113-142. Compare Sir W. Ouseley, Travels, vol. iii. pp„
328-334 ; and De Filippi, Viaggio in Persia, p. 267.
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 [283r] (568/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x0000af> [accessed 4 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