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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [296v] (595/1814)
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.
370
PERSIA
spasms of excessive gluttony and stupefied repose. The periods of
feasting, however, last from seven to ten days, the intervals of
torpor not more than two. After the first ten days the worms are
transferred to a tilcimhav. or platform, covered with
shanty and reared at a height of about five feet from the ground,
where, in the intervals of voracity, they are stuffed to repletion
with mulberry leaves. After about forty days they become fat,
full, and nearly transparent, in which uncomfortable condition
they exhibit a desire to climb up a number of branches placed
vertically in the shed, and to spin their cocoons. This goes on
for ten days, during which time the tilambar is hermetically closed.
At the end of that time it is again opened, the boughs are
removed, the roof is found to be entirely covered with beautiful
cocoons; and while some of these are spared to develop into
moths for breeding purposes, the bulk are taken down, the
chrysalis is killed by exposure to the sun, or immersion in boiling
water, and the silk is unravelled and wound off on reels. The
survivors come out as full-blown moths in a fortnight,^ when the
female, having done her duty by laying from 100 to 300 eggs,
pines, and incontinently expires.
In addition to the valuable products of their cultivated area,
Mazanderan and Gilan are endowed with gratuitous sources of
other re- wealth, of which but little, and that unsystematic, ad-
sources vantage is taken by the Persians. There are considerable
mineral resources in the two provinces, of which I shall speak in
a future chapter on the resources of the whole country. Much of
the timber that is grown on the mountain slopes is well adapted
for ship building. It was utilised for that purpose by John Elton,
the ingenious English shipwright of Nadir Shah, who was com
missioned by that monarch to construct for him a flotilla on the
Caspian. Timber from Mazanderan was even hewn and ordered to
be transported across the whole of Persia to the Gulf, in order to
repeat the experiment there. Boxwood has been exported from
the Caspian provinces in some quantity to Russia and England.
But no system or science of forestry exists ; and the timber which
might produce a large annual revenue is either apathetically
neglected or mischievously destroyed . 1 Nor is the sea much less
rich in money-making properties than the land. The mouths of
1 In 1886 the monopoly of wood-cutting in Gilan was purchased by a Russian
for two years for 50,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
(16,000Z.). In 1890 it stood at 17,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
.
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 [296v] (595/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000002> [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