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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [313r] (628/1814)
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—EOYAL FAMILY—MINISTERS
401
submitted to him, and is not decided except upon his authority.
His ministers disavow all initiative, and tremble at any executive
responsibility. Imperious, diligent, and fairly just, the Shah is in
his own person the sole arbiter of Persia's fortunes. All policy
emanates from him. He supervises every department with a
curiosity that requires to be constantly appeased ; and his attention
both to foreign and domestic politics is constant and unremitting.
I here is a consensus of opinion in Persia that * he is the most
competent man in the country, and the best ruler that it can
produce. Nor will anyone deny him the possession of patriotism
and of a genuine interest in the welfare of the nation. He is,
however, placed in a most unfortunate situation by the rivalry
of Cheat Britain and Pussia—a question which I shall discuss
in a later chapter—while he is further impeded by the intrigues
that swarm about the Court and person of the monarch, by a
tendency natural to humanity, and particularly to a man who
has passed the middle of life, to let things abide in his time, and
by a sense of powerlessness against the petrified ideas and pre
judices of an Oriental people.
Perhaps a special sympathy is due to a sovereign, the exigen
cies of whose rank and position render it almost impossible for
Atmo _ him to receive the assistance which tried and inde
sphere of pendent counsellors can afford even to the wearer of a
crown. Such is the divinity that doth hedge a throne
in Persia, that not merely does the Shah never attend at state
dinners or eat with his subjects at table, with the exception of
a single banquet to his principal male relatives at No Buz, but the
attitude and language employed towards him even by his confi
dential ministers are those of servile obeisance and adulation.
c May I be your sacrifice, Asylum of the Universe , 5 is the common
mode of address adopted even by subjects of the highest rank.
In his own surrounding there is no one to tell him the truth
or to give him dispassionate counsel. The foreign Ministers
are probably almost the only source from which he learns facts
as they are, or receives unvarnished, even if interested, advice.
With the best intentions in the world for the undertaking of
great plans and for the amelioration of his country, he has little or
no control over the execution of an enterprise which has once
passed out of his hands and has become the sport of corrupt and
self-seeking officials. Half the money voted with his consent never
VOL. i. D D
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 [313r] (628/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000023> [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