![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎335r] (672/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0683.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎335r] (672/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [335r] (672/1814)
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.
)nl y by use afld «
are sometimes
he c ompl a i niltlt
^nd, according
’ res ’ fruit-tree^
ls tliis sum ex-
^ed objects
these lists vjU
iuses j have been
equence of %
3, the economic
16 twenty years
s of opium, that
% going up, in
ly the extreme
3S in general, on
es, explains how
scause it is the
lie country and
From a perusal
caught of that
he bribe or gift
e scription, is a
^ mudakhil, i.e.
ired to balance
myriad different
multiplicity, is
sxistence. This
re is no precise
as commission,
stealings, profit,
THE GOVERNMENT 441
according to the immediate context in which it is employed.
Roughly speaking, it signifies that balance of personal advantage,
usually expressed in money form, which can be squeezed out of
any and every transaction. A negotiation, in which two parties are
involved as donor and recipient, as superior and subordinate, or
even as equal contracting agents, cannot take place in Persia with
out the party who can be represented as the author of the favour
or service claiming and receiving a definite cash return for what
lie has done or given. It may of course be said that human
nature is much the same all the world over; that a similar system
exists under a different name in onr own or other countries, and
that the philosophic critic will welcome in the Persian a man
and a brother. To some extent this is true. But in no country
that I have ever seen or heard of in the world, is the system so
open, so shameless, or so universal as in Persia. So far from
being limited to the sphere of domestic economy or to commercial
transactions, it permeates every walk and inspires most of the
actions of life. By its operation, generosity or gratuitous service
may be said to have been erased in Persia from the category of
social virtues, and cupidity has been elevated into the guiding
principle of human conduct. Examples, however, explain more
clearly than can any verbal generalisation; and I will, therefore,
proceed to show how the institution of mudakhil works in every
channel and department of Persian life.
I have alreadv shown that no office of distinction is conferred
by the Crown except for a pecuniary consideration or price, which,
Practical ^ ie case a P os ^ bestowed by the Shah, goes into
iiiustra- ki s private exchequer. This is the mudakhil of the
tiOHS . A
sovereign. Some of the processes adopted for raising
this branch of the revenue will hereafter come under discussion.
Here I propose to follow the further ramifications of the system,
as it spreads through the entire official hierarchy of which the
Shah is the head and exemplar. In the next descending grade
the governor who has paid a smart price for his appointment is not
one whit behindhand either in the desire or in the capacity to
indemnify himself. He farms out the taxes or customs to a third
individual for a sum, perhaps, half as much again as that which he
himself has given. The balance is his mudakhil. So too the
kalantar or kedkhoda in his turn insists upon his squeeze ; the ( farm
ing ’ process, which is universal in Persia, affording an easy basis for
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 [335r] (672/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x00004f> [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