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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [312r] (626/1814)
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.
THE SHAH—ROYAL FAMILY—MINISTERS 399
brilliant schemes, and the lumber-rooms of the palace are not
more full of broken mechanism and discarded bric-a-brac than are
the pigeon-holes of the government bureaux of abortive reforms
and dead fiascoes.
More curious, and, in a sense, more childlike still, is the Shah’s
well-known partiality for a pun, or still more for a practical joke.
Sense of His sense of humour is easily operated upon, and does
humour no ^ err on ^} ie 0 f refinement. It is recorded that he
was immensely tickled upon one occasion, when he asked the
reason for the removal of some lamps which had lighted the
approach to one of the palaces, and received the reply that it was
c parce que le chat (Shah) voit toujours mieux dans la nuit.’ He
is even more pleased, however, when he can victimise his ministers
or courtiers by some successful ruse. Having procured a number
of skates and bicycles, he compelled the luckless grandees to
perform upon these strange instruments in the palace garden, to
his own intense amusement. Well known, too, is the story of the
collapsible india-rubber boat, which was presented to him by an
English officer, and in which he sent a dozen A.D.C.’s and
chamberlains out for a row, on the tank in the royal garden.
Meanwhile, he had secretly ordered the valve to be opened, and
the boat duly collapsed in mid-lake, leaving the richly-dressed
courtiers floundering in the water. Nor do the titled members of
the royal household by any means All sinecure offices, for the Shah
will sometimes, when out in the country, require them to prepare
his meal with their own elegant hands.
Strongest of all these proclivities is the extreme fondness of
the Shah for animals, which is pushed to a point that recalls the
Fancy for s f 01 T °f Caligula and his horse. Cats have been the
animals especial object of this strange attachment. For one of
these creatures was kept a baggage horse, which carried a specially
constructed cage with velvet-padded wires. On another occasion, one
of the royal cats fell asleep on the coat-tails of a courtier, who, with
true diplomacy, cut off the offending skirt rather than disturb the
slumbers of the favourite. Another cat had a pension of 400Z. a
year settled upon it in old age. One of the Shah's wives is said
to have originally commended herself to his fancy by her devotion
to the feline favourite of the hour. Quite the funniest, however,
of the anecdotes illustrating this innocent, if uncommon taste, is
that of the lioness who gave birth to cubs in the royal menagerie
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 [312r] (626/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000021> [accessed 4 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