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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [337v] (677/1814)
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.
446
PERSIA'
received amounted to two-fifths of the entire fixed revenue fw] *
he estimated at 3,000,000^.), or to 1,200,000?. Madame SerenaO
makes a great mistake in calculating the receipts of the present
Shah at ISTo IIuz from these sources as 60,000,000 francs or
double the sum ascribed to Fath Ali Shah by Malcolm
matter of fact the presents received by the reigning Shah have
never been more than a third, or at most a half, of those extorted
by his great-grandfather, and the total is said to have dwindled in
recent years to only a few thousand pounds. This reduction does
not by any means imply that the receipts of the government have
fallen, but only that there has been a redistribution of incidence
the greatly increased results from the assessed revenue producing
a corresponding diminution in the cash money-presents of the
governor and officials.
A device, more delicate in its regard for the scruples of the
donor, but equally certain in its productiveness, is the gift of the
The Royal Royal hlielat. Once in each year every provincial
Jdielat governor receives from the sovereign the gift of a hhelat
or robe of honour (as a sign of his continuance in office), to the
bearer of which he must present a I'helat-heha, or equivalent price,
the gift of which is in reality a relief to the pocket of the Shah. 2
The cost of the lihelat is reckoned as a normal item of expenditure
by every provincial governor in the calculation of his budget. Out
side every Persian city of any size is a pavilion, or place, known as
the Khelat Pushan, whither the governor rides out at the head of a
brilliant cavalcade to receive the royal present, and whence, having
donned the garb or mantle, he returns to the towm, the remainder
of the day being given up to public rejoicing. The happy
recipient knows that he is safe for another year. Extraordinary
khelats are frequently solicited and paid for on a larger scale, in
order to insure the continued favour of the sovereign. The same
system is repeated in a descending scale among the lower grades
of the official hierarchy, the provincial governor also sending a
yearly Ichelat to his subordinate, and being equally gratified by the
petition for an extraordinary lihelat.
These are the more familiar and recoonised resources of royal
1 Homines et Chases en Perse, p. 240.
2 Thus the function of transmitting the hhelat is intrusted to some minister
or member of the household whom it is intended to favour, and who not un
commonly himself sells the honour to another party. The hhelat-heha of Khora-
san is not less than 1,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
, in addition to other perquisites.
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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 [337v] (677/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000054> [accessed 7 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