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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [408r] (818/1814)
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.
571
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ate of affairs
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) J. Sheil ( 1836 ), Jnndiji
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rnan ( 1830 ), Water '!./«
els in Koordistm, vol. i. itfc
ii. caps, vi., vii.
I. Schindler (1881-2),Ml
Narrative of
orter (1819), Trmh^i
the B . G . S ., vol. x. 1.
wlinson (1838), iW; A,I
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Aliabad, Kulanjic, An
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CHAPTER XVII
THE ARMY
Prince Henry. —I did never see such pitiful rascals 1
Foist aff .— Tut ! tut ! good enough to toss ; food for powder, food for powder,
they’ll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.
Shakspeare. — Henry IV., Part I., act iv., sc. ii.
From the time when Persian soldiers were first seen in Europe,
and when, according to Herodotus, who gives a most minute ac-
^ count of their organisation and equipment, c the Persians
th^Pemian at PI at tea were not one whit inferior to the Greeks in
army courage and. warlike spirit ,’ 1 down to the present day,
when he would be a bold critic who would institute even such a
comparison, the Persian army has in many and shifting phases
afforded material of interest to the traveller and the historian. The
vision of the 10,000 Immortals, marching in serried ranks, with the
golden pomegranates flashing on their spears, has early impressed
our imagination ; and in the distant galleries of time few echoes ring
more loudly than the clash of Persian and Grecian onset upon the
fields of Marathon and Thermopylee, of Cunaxa, of Issus and Arbela.
These illustrious memories we must here relinquish, nor does space
admit of our recovering from the oblivion with which they have
been long overlaid, the armaments and tactics, the marches and
combats, of the Parthian and Sassanian kings . 2 * * It was not till
the dawn of the seventeenth century that the foundations of a
modern standing army were laid in Persia, or that the military
ideas of the West were perfunctorily grafted on to the Oriental
stock. Here, in brief retrospect, our study of the Persian army
may begin, the moment when a European turn was given to its
organisation being also the moment when the connection between
itself and England, that has had so many and fateful vicissitudes,
1 Herodotus, ix. 62.
2 Cedrenus says of Chosroes I. (Nushirwan), that he invented an engine which
1 guttas demitteret tanquam pluviam et tonitrus sonitus resonaret.’ But what was
the exact nature of this early anticipation of Greek fire we cannot determine.
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 [408r] (818/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x000019> [accessed 6 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