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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [286v] (575/1814)
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.
352
PERSIA
whose likenesses at Naksh-i-Hustain and Shapm I shall describe
later on. In the latter part of I ath All Shah s reign, however, this
bas-relief, in the true spirit of Persian restoration, was effaced to
make way for a sculpture representing the long-bearded monarch
spearing a lion ; and no one now seems to be aware of the history
of this wanton palimpsest . 1 At some distance lower down, another
smoothed surface of rock, rising above a pretty pool known as the
Ohashmeh-i-Ali (or Fountain of Ali), exhibits Fath Ali Shah seated
in high relief, with his Court—a nineteenth-century imitation of the
Sassaman model, which has also been copied b\ hs asi —ed-Dm Shah
on the road through the Elburz into Mazanderan, and of which it is
difficult to say whether it is more pompous or absurd. An adjoining
panel exhibits the same sovereign under a parasol, holding a falcon
upon his wrist. This is the sum total of what is to be seen at Ekey.
In a desolate valley of the mountain-range at whose feet it lies is
situated, at a considerable elevation, the circular 4 Tower of Silence , 5
or place of exposure of the Parsis of Teheran. Like its well-known
namesakes at Bombay, it consists of a hollow tower, in which the
bodies of the dead are exposed upon ledges, to be devoured by
birds of prey; but, unlike the structures of Bombay, its interior
can be seen by climbing to a higher point of the mountain.
Between thirty and forty miles in a south-easterly direction from
Teheran are the remains of yet another dead capital, Veramin.
The present town is dominated by the walls of a great
mud fort, flanked with bastions and sloping inwards from
the base. It was this great structure (of which there is an excel
lent likeness in Mme. Dieulafoy’s book) which I had seen upon the
summit of its mound while riding towards Teheran across the
northern skirts of the plain of Veramin, and which the fickle light
had transformed into huge detached pillars of mud. The village
also contains the ruins of what was once a most noble mosque,
attributed to Sultan Abu Said, the son of Sultan Mohammed
Khodabundeh (i.e. Slave of God), whose tomb I have mentioned at
SultaniehA Scattered about the plain are other great halebs, or
similar earthen fortresses, with towering walls of unbaked bricks
1 Vide E. Flandin, Perse Moderne, plate 30. Illustrations of the original are
given by Ouseley, Travels, vol. iii. plate 65, and W. Price, Journal of Embassy, p- ^ ;
and the fact of the mutilation is mentioned by Fraser in 1834, Winter s Journey,
vol. ii. p. 49. Nevertheless Stuart, who wrote in 1835, Lady Sheil cire. 1850,
Binning in 1851, and Ussher in 1861, all mention and describe the Sassanian ba & -
relief, which it is therefore clear that not one of them had ever so much as seen.
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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 [286v] (575/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x0000b6> [accessed 13 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