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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎348v] (699/1814)

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. .

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468
PERSIA
Sultanabad; Burujircl and Niliavend ; Burujird, Kliorreniabad, and
Shushter (in course of extension to Ahwaz and Moliammerah) •
Isfahan, Yezd, and Kerman. Statistics of the revenue and expen
diture, and of the work accomplished, are not issued.
The history and the present condition of Journalism in Persia
afford as eloquent an illustration of the anomalous position occupied
News- by that nation—suspended, like Mohammed’s coffin, be-
papers tween the two worlds of culture and barbarism—as can
be conceived. For on the one hand the outward symptoms of
civilisation present themselves in the shape of a number of journals
published in the capital and elsewhere under Royal and ministerial
patronage; but on the other, the Press as an institution has
positively no existence, and freedom of printed speech, or even
liberty of criticism, are unknown. Hence it is an illusory, if not a
deceitful, claim that is sometimes advanced by the professional
spokesmen of the Regeneration of Persia, when they point to her
possession of three or four newspapers as a proof of respectable
advance in the domain of liberty and culture.
It was in 1850, in the administration of the famous Amir-i-
Nizam, Mirza Taki Khan, whom I have so often mentioned, that
?or eir ait' tlie first 1>ersian news P a per was established . 1 He placed
and pre- ^ under an English editor, whose duty was to republish
judicious or interesting extracts from the European
journals; and he frequently contributed political articles to it
himself. At the same time he started the system, which has been
virtually continued with every succeeding publication—and without
W K 1 a press 80 strai % laced and hampered could not subsist
" o re qu irm g the entire Civil Service above a certain rank to
become regular subscribers. This paper appears to have subse
quently expired (probably upon the degradation and murder of its
Y Y, A 1 ? 66 Ml ’' M ° Unse - y s P eaks of another publication,
en it ed the Teheran Gazette,’ which was started by command of
me . ah m that year, and whose columns were at first filled with
descriptions of European countries, inventions, and trades, until,
the interest of editor and readers alike in these novelties being
exhausted the bill of fare was restricted to a Court Circular, and
o disquisitions on Oriental Science, Alchemy, &c. At the present
time the newspapers m existence in Teheran are as follows
() he Iran, a purely official organ, to which all functionarii
‘ Vide B ' Binnin g> TmoYewg Travel, yol. ii. p. 162.
xes

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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
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎348v] (699/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x00006a> [accessed 5 June 2026]

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