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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [300v] (603/1814)
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.
378 PERSIA
the present Shah in its place, is within measurable distance of a
similar dissolution. The town of Ashraf was peopled by Shah
Abbas with a colony of 7,000 Armenians, some of whose descen
dants still inhabit the place along with a mixture of Persian and
Turkish descent. During the last twenty years it has experienced
quite a revival, owing to the trade with Russia that has sprung up
from the port, or rather roadstead, of Meshed-i-Ser.
Twenty-six miles from Ashraf on the north-west, at a distance
of about three miles from the Caspian and on the banks of the
Ferahabad Te J en river ’ are situatecl the ruins of another city and
palace of Abbas, known as Ferahabad. Pietro della
Valle declared that the circuit of the walls was equal to, if not
greater than, that of Rome or Constantinople, and that the city
contained streets of more than a league in length. In this palace
died Shah Abbas in January 1628, in the forty-third year of his
reign and the seventy-first of his age. Forty years later the palace,
which, according to Chardin, was c a wonder of art that deserved a
kind of perpetuity , 5 and ‘ wherein was kept a vast treasure of
dishes and basins of porcellane or china, cornaline, agate, coral,
amber, cups of crystal of the rock, and other varieties without
number , 5 was plundered by the Cossacks and destroyed; and the
worthy knight sorrowfully adds, c Every time I think of the magni
ficence and delightfulness of that place, I cannot but lament its
hard fate. 1 Fraser, in 1822, examined and carefully described the
ruins of Feiahabad, which he declared to be vastly inferior to those
of Ashiaf, in extent as well as in magnificence, and to indicate
only a temporary rather than a permanent abode. It is curious that
the king should have ventured upon two such similar designs in
such close pioximity to each other; but it is also characteristic of
the whims of a monarch, who shared to the full the capricious irre
sponsibility that has always been a feature of despotism in the
East. Feiahabad is now a miserable village, which no one turns
aside to visit.
From, the palaces I turn to the cities of Mazanderan, few in
number but distinct in individuality, which I shall treat in the
Cities of or ^ er in which they are encountered if journeying upon
deran 1 " Shah Abbas causeway from Astrabad, namely: Sari, Bar-
furush, Amok Of all of them it may be said that in their
situation, amid forest or jungle and on moist and luxuriant plains,
1 Coronation of King Solyman III., pp. 152-154.
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 [300v] (603/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x00000a> [accessed 8 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