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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [311v] (625/1814)
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.
398
PERSIA
with great respect; lie is well posted in European politics andth
personal criticism of the Continental journals is generally reported
to his ears. That the freedom of speech which he there encounters
and ’ of which he has occasionally found himself the victim does
not quite harmonise with his own ideas of the licence that should
be accorded to a press, will be evident when I come to an account
of the newspapers of Teheran.
That the Shah is not without artistic tastes is shown by his
fondness for music. In the Eoyal Museum is quite a collection
Tastes and of musical boxes; and the sound of military airs is
caprices peculiarly agreeable to his ears. To gratify this pro
pensity, he keeps both a French and an Austrian bandmaster
Another respect in which he and his predecessors have so far
conquered native prejudice as to rely upon foreign assistance is
in the employment of medical science. Abbas Mirza was the first
to set the example by appointing Dr. Oormick, an Englishman to
be Physician of his Household. Mohammed Shah followed, with
Dr. Labat, a Frenchman, who on one occasion saved his life, and
later with Dr. Cloquet. Dr. Dickson, of the British Legation
acquired a great reputation during the present reign; but the
personal physician of the Shah has, for many years, been another
Frenchman, Dr. Tholozan, whose name and personality are
familiar to most visitors to Teheran. Among the more trivial,
but not uninteresting characteristics of the monarch whom we are
discussing, there are three, which in this context are worthy of
mention. These are the Shah’s childlike passion for novelty, his
incurable love of a joke, and his fondness for animals, about all of
which many good stories are current in the society of the capital.
Just as, in the course of his European travels, he picked up a vast
number of what appeared, to the Eastern mind, to be wonderful
curiosities, but which have since been stacked in the various apart
ments of the palace, or put away and forgotten ; so in the larger
sphere of public policy and administration he is continually
taking up and pushing some new scheme or invention which,
when the caprice has been gratified, is neglected or allowed to
expire. One week it is gas ; another it is electric light. Now
it is a staff college; anon, a military hospital. To-day it is a
Russian uniform ; yesterday it was a German man-of-war for the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
. A new army warrant is issued this year; a new code
of law is promised for the next. Nothing comes of any of these
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 [311v] (625/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000020> [accessed 6 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