![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎298r] (598/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0609.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎298r] (598/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [298r] (598/1814)
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.
. rr--r~: -
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
373
Chardin goes on to relate, c The malignity of the air was so cross to
his designs and projects, that, about 1630, the 30,000 Christian
families were reduced to 400/ The Italian Pietro della Valle, who
visited the Court of Shah Abbas in Mazanderan, was very much
smitten with the ladies of that province. ‘ The women,’ he wrote,
‘ were in my eyes perfectly beautiful; and I had full opportunity
of judging, as, unlike other Mohammedans, they never cover the
face, but converse freely with man. In addition, they are affable
and exceedingly obliging.’
I have previously spoken of the Cossack descent upon Mazan
deran that occurred in the year 1668. Fifty years later the
Russian Russians made their first determined attempt, in the
invasion dosing years of Peter the Great’s reign, to occupy the
southern shores of the Caspian. Such conflicting versions of this
episode have found their way into books about Persia, that I will
briefly relate, so far as can be ascertained, what actually occurred.
The best authorities are Jonas Hanway, who was in the country
within a few years of the event; G. Forster, the first overland
traveller from India to England, sixty years later; Captain
P. H. Bruce, an Englishman serving in Peter the Great’s army
during the first Persian Campaign ; Dorn’s 4 Caspia ’ (in Russian) ;
and a work byM. Fonton entitled ‘La Russie dans 1’AsieMineure.’
From a collation of these several sources we may reconstruct the
narrative of events as follows. In 1722, Peter sent an ambassa
dor to the Persian Court at Isfahan to demand redress for serious
damage done to the property of Russian merchants by the Lesghians,
then in constant revolt against Persia, in the town of Shemakht.
The envoy, arriving at the capital, found that Shah Sultan Huseiii
had been deposed, and that Mahmud, the Afghan usurper, was on
the throne. The latter replied that he could not accept the respon
sibility, and that the Czar had better safeguard his own trade. Peter,
who was never slow at accepting a hint, at once assembled an army
of 30,000 veterans at Astrakhan, embarked in July 1722, and sailed
against Derbend, which yielded to his arms. He was proceeding to
advance upon Baku and Shemakhi, when he was met by the Ottoman
ambassador with the threat that, unless he withdrew (the Turks
also laying claim to the entire Caucasus), he would find a Turkish
as well as a Persian war upon his hands. He then retired for the
winter to Astrakhan, leaving a garrison at Derbend and a fort on
a river further south, which was presently attacked by the Afghans
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
Use and share this item
- Share this item
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [298r] (598/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000005> [accessed 6 June 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000005
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000005">Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎298r] (598/1814)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000005"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0609.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
Copyright: How to use this content
- 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