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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [294r] (590/1814)
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.
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
365
of East Khorasan. The entire outfit is said to cost from sixteen to
eighteen shillings. The men are frequently equipped with bill
hooks to clear a way through the jungle.
• To anyone who has been, as I have, in other parts of the Caspian,
or who knows of the temperature that there prevails in the winter
influence months, the contrasts between the northern and central
olspian on an( ^ southern shores, as I have here depicted them,
climate j n climate, in flora, and in fauna, is so great as to be al
most amazing, and far greater than can be accounted for by the mere
difference of latitude. Khanikoff well expressed the phenomenon
thus exhibited in the following terms, which I have translated :—
If we compare the arid and sorrowful uniformity of the saline
plains on the north shore of the Caspian with the luxuriant and almost
tropical vegetation on its southern coast, we are struck with the
contrast presented by the development of organic nature upon the
two borders of the same inland sea. In the north the donkey can
scarcely withstand the rigour of the climate ; in the south the tiger of
Bengal is a common animal. Near Astrakhan it is all that the grape
can do to ripen; in the Gulf of Astrabad, on the semi-island of
Potemkin, the palm-tree grows wild, and sugar-cane and cotton are
cultivated with success. Finally, every year the northern parts of the
sea are fast bound in ice ; whilst, before they have had time to melt,
e\eiything is in full bloom on the coasts of Gilan and Mazanderan . 1
Ihe explanation of this seemingly strange phenomenon is, no
doubt, that the vapour-charged clouds arising from the Caspian,
and drifting southwards under the effect of the prevalent winds'
impinge against the crests and slopes of the Elburz, and descend
m mist and rain on to the lowlands sloping below. Khanikoff
thinks that the dissolvent process is furthered by currents of hot air
flowing in a north-westerly direction from the Great Central Desert,
and that, when these meet the northern blasts, they melt in soft
lain. Certainly the rainfall in the Caspian provinces is as ten to
one compared with that in other parts of Persia; and rain is liable to
fall, not at certain seasons of the year only, but almost at anytime.
The staple produce of Mazanderan is rice, cotton, and sugar.
The staple produce of Gilan once was silk. As Richard Chenie,
Produce 0ne of tlie factors of the British Moscovy Company’
wrote home in ]56o, ‘The King of Gillan, where as yet
you have had no traffique, liveth al by marchandise.’ Since it
1 Memoire, etc., p. 71 .
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 [294r] (590/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x0000c5> [accessed 20 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