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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [347v] (697/1814)
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.
466
PERSIA
farmed the chajjar service from the Minister of Ways and Commu
nications. The conveyance of letters was an agreeable source
L tt P t P ro] ^ ^ iese individuals. There was supposed to be
some fixed scale of charge, which, however, no one knew
As a matter of fact, they extracted a commission at both ends of the
line; for on the one hand the sender of the letter had to pay
beforehand for its conveyance; and on the other the recipient could
not secure its delivery until he too had crossed the postmaster’s
palm. I have seen it stated that in this primitive epoch a postal
service after the European model was started, but that it was
abandoned because the contractor for the stamps was discovered
to have privately printed 100,000 for his own benefit; an incident
so profoundly Persian as to render the tale more than credible. In
1875, an official of the Austrian Post Office, by name G. Piederer.
was entrusted with the organisation of the Persian Post upon
European lines. Beginning experimentally with a postal delivery
in the capital, and gradually extending his material and training
a staff, within little more than a year of his appointment he had
instituted the first regular riding post in Persia once a week be
tween Teheran, Tabriz, and Julfa, with a branch from Ivazvin to
Besht. In the succeeding year (1876) he was appointed Post
master-General. In 1877 Persia was admitted to the International
Postal Union. Herr Piederer having quitted the Persian service
in the same year, he was succeeded by a Russian named Stahl, who
appointed Dr. Andreas, the joint author of the publication from
which I have more than once quoted, General Inspector of Persian
Posts. . Within a couple of months Andreas was dismissed for
leclaiming an embezzled letter from the Governor of Shiraz, and a
}eai latei M. Stahl fell also. For some time the service remained
in a piecaiious and insecure condition, valuable packets being
opened and plundered; and Europeans found it safer to trust to the
couriers of the British Legation, or to the officials of the Indo-
European Telegraph. Latterly much greater safety has been as
sured, and the arrangements now include a bi-weekly service to
iUrope via Tabriz and Tiflis, and via Resht and Baku; a weekly
service to India via Buskire; and weekly services between the
capital and Meshed, Yezd, Kerman, Shiraz, and Kermanshah. In
1886 there were reported to be seventy-three post-offices in the
mg oin, and in the year 1884—5—the latest for which official
statistics are procurable—there were conveyed 1,368,835 letters,
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 [347v] (697/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000068> [accessed 14 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