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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [357v] (717/1814)
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.
486
PERSIA
Eastern country, within my knowledge, where these influences have
not been felt, do the recognised and most populous highways of
communication, though, perhaps, as in the case of pilgrim routes
trodden by hundreds of thousands, correspond to what we should
term a road, that is, a track artificially prepared, levelled, and
metalled ; and in Persia, least perhaps of any among the impor
tant and frequented countries of Asia, is there plausible excuse for
the employment of the term.
The need of roads for Persia has been long seen. No one who
has laboriously travelled over that country, by postal service or by
Need in caravan, or who has witnessed the tedious and expensive
transport of merchandise on the backs of camels or mules
but sighs for the intelligence or the enterprise that will set on foot
this most elementary and indispensable of innovations. The quick
eye of Sir John Malcolm at the beginning of the century detected
the need ; and his bluff candour as soon communicated the discovery
to the Persian Ministers. But let him speak for himself:
The wisdom which prompted this advice was lauded to the skies.
Roads were admitted to be a great and obvious improvement, at once
ornamental and profitable to Persia. Plans for making and keeping
them in repair were required and furnished. The royal mandate, the
Elchi was told, should be issued immediately ; and he was much pleased
at the thought of having given rise to a measure so good, and which
he considered as preparing the way for the permanent improvement of
the country. . . . Bat you know Persia/ was the concluding observa
tion of the Amin-ed-Dowleh, Minister of Finance, on the scheme . 1
T es, the Amin-ed-Dowleh was right * and a far inferior know
ledge of Persia to that which he possessed might have taught the
sanguine plenipotentiary that roads would not come in his time.
It is eighty years since Malcolm was in Persia • and a chorus of
later travellers has swollen alike the advice and the lament. Here,
therefore, we may reasonably pause and note both what has been
done, and what is still projected, for the supply of this classic and
venerable need.
In 1889 Persia possessed only two carriageable roads of any
Existing exten f* These were the roads from Kazvin to Teheran,
roads ^ 6 anC ^ ^ r0lri Teheran to Kum, each between ninety and a
hundred miles in length. Upon the former alone is organ-
ised a service of telegas and tarantasses, after the Russian fashion,
1 Sketches of Persia, vol. ii. p. 231.
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 [357v] (717/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x00007c> [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