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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [297v] (597/1814)
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.
372
PERSIA
history, and in the campaigns of Alexander, may he traced by
reference to the title Hyrcania in a Classical dictionary. I n the
Christian Era they appear only at fitful epochs upon the public
stage. During the Sassanian period and the first centuries of
Islam, Mazanderan formed part of Tapuristan, the modern Taberi-
stan. About the year 900 a.d. Mazanderan was given by the
Khalif Mutadhid (or Mutazzid) to Ismail Samani, the founder of
the Samanid dynasty of North Persia and Bokhara, as a reward
for his services in conquering the rebellious Aim^bin Leith, the
brother and successor of Yakub bin Leith, already mentioned in the
chapter on Seistan. In the fourteenth century we find an inde
pendent Seyid dynasty ruling in Mazanderan. When Anthony
Jenkinson and his fellow pioneers opened the British Caspian
trade with Persia in the middle of the sixteenth century, they
speak of a king of Gilan, who was only in nominal dependence
upon the Sefavi Shahs. This state of halting subjection developed
into actual rebellion in the reign of Shah Abbas, who, in 1593,
ordered a general massacre in Gilan. Mazanderan, however, as his
mother’s birthplace, was a special favourite with Abbas. Here he
built a series of magnificent palaces, whose wasting ruins I shall
presently describe; here, in sight of the Caspian and in a retreat
where no enemy could either follow or disturb him, he loved, when
not at Isfahan, to reside. So anxious was he to raise the maritime
border to a higher level of prosperity and cultivation, that here, as
elsewhere, he pursued his favourite policy of colonisation on a
gigantic scale; transplanting 30,000 families of Christians from
the Turkish border in order at one and the same time to depopulate
the regions which were yearly ravaged by the Ottomans, and to
apply a fresh and vigorous industry to the most neglected part of
his dominions. Chardin gives the following quaint description of
the aptitudes of the country for the novel immigrants :—
It is sayd to be a perfect right country for the Christians; it
abounds with wine and hog’s flesh, two things which they mightily
like ; they love to go to sea, and they will traffick with their brothers,
the Muscovites, by the Caspian Sea . 1
Abbas, however, had failed to reckon with the Mazanderani
climate, which quarrelled as fatally with the new comers as it did
with the worthy English ambassador, Sir Dodmore Cotton ; for, as
Travels (edit. Lloyd), vol. ii. pp. 8-11.
i
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 [297v] (597/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000004> [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