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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [342v] (687/1814)
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.
456
PEESIA
the nature of a compromise, is given, and, if reasonably fair is
accepted. The verdict is signed and registered by the Sheikh-el-
Islam or the Imam-i-Jama (the Chief Priest), and with a little
present to the jury all round, the appellants conclude what is pro
bably one of the cheapest and most effective forms of legal pro
cedure in the world. If either party is dissatisfied with the
sentence, an appeal lies to the local governor ; or, in intricate
cases of landed titles and testamentary disposition, the ecclesia
stical court may be first invoked. The same system prevails in
the lower grades and occupations of life. A dispute of the
character above mentioned occurring in a country district, will be
referred, in the first place, to a mejilis of farmers, village elders, or
rish-seftd (literally white-beards), &c., with an appeal from them to
the kedkhoda or to the mullahs, or, in the last resort, to the provin
cial governor. In spite of the shameless bribery that prevails
directly the purlieus of the diwan-khaneh are reached, Dr. Wills gives
us the consolatory assurance that substantial justice is done in the
end; for what the Asiatic expends in bribes, we disburse in fees,
costs, and charges; thus both reaching the same goal by different
roads. . This genial opinion appears somewhat to ignore the quality
of the justice that is dispensed in either case.
Before I quit the subject of the Persian law and its administra
tion, let me add a few words upon the subject of penalties and
piisons. hsothing is more shocking to the European reader,
Pains and m pursuing his way through the crime-stained and bloody
P ena ies pages of Persian history during the last and, in a
happily less degree, during the present century, than the record
of savage punishments and abominable tortures, testifying alter
nately to the callousness of the brute and the ingenuity of the
The Persian character has ever been fertile in device and
indifferent to suffering; and in the field of judicial executions,
it has found ample scope for the exercise of both attainments.
Up till quite a recent period, well within the borders of the
present reign, condemned criminals have been crucified, blown
from guns buried alive, impaled, shod like horses, torn asunder
±-1 ei ^ ^ nnc ^ the heads of two trees bent together and
T/. 0We i s P 1 ^ n g* back to their natural position, 1 con-
ver e into uman torches, flayed while living. The latest case
j-ms iis a
by Alexander nn r 11 rn " 60 exeeution ; for it was the punishment inflicted
ej Alexander on Bessus, the murderer of Darius.
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 [342v] (687/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x00005e> [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