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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [370v] (743/1814)
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.
PERSIA
506
unparalleled in Persia, in the midst of much scorn and ill-treatment from
the mullahs as well as the rabble. He was a beardless youth and evi
dently enfeebled by disease. He dwelt amongst us for more than a year.
His extreme forbearance towards the violence of his opponents, the
calm yet convincing manner in which he expounded the fallacies and
sophistries by which he was assailed (for he spoke Persian excellently)
gradually inclined me to listen to his arguments, to inquire dispassion
ately into the subject of them, and finally to read a tract which he
had written in reply to a (: Defence of Islam ; by our chief mullahs.
The result of my examination was a conviction that the young dis
putant was right.
Binning, in 1850, made inquiries as to the alleged convert at
Shiraz, but finding no trace of him, said, c it is probable that the
account is a fiction; 5 a conclusion which, considering the lapse of
time—forty years—between the incident and the inquiry, and in
spite of my own views upon converts from Islam, it seems to me
far from fair to adopt. Martyn having died, the next comer, in
1829, was Mr. Groves, who, however, soon gravitated from Persia
to Baghdad. Some Germans, named Dietrich, Zaremba, and Haas,
opened Christian schools at about the same time in Shisheh and
Tabriz. In 1838 the Rev. W. Glen arrived in Persia, and even
tually completed a revised edition of the New Testament transla
tion of Martyn, having already spent three years in translating the
Old Testament at Astrakhan. In the same period the Frenchman,
Eugene Bore, created much excitement and uproar by his preach
ing in Isfahan. I shall, in my chapter upon the North-West
Provinces, narrate the foundation of the American, the French, and
the English Missions to the Nestorians of Urumiah and the border
districts of Azerbaijan, and the extension of branches of the first-
named mission to Teheran (1872), Tabriz (1873), Hamadan (1881),
Resht (1883). In a later chapter I shall mention the flourishing
Church of England Mission, established by the Rev. Dr. Bruce
under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society in Julfa, the
suburb of Isfahan. I am here concerned rather to discuss the
attitude of the Persian Government towards Christian missions in
general, and the success or the reverse that attends the missionary
propaganda among the Persian Mohammedans.
The Persian Government must be credited on the whole with a
liberal and conciliatory policy towards the Christian elements
among its population. As I -have said, the Nestorians have few
SA* h
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 [370v] (743/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000096> [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