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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [426v] (855/1814)
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.
604
PERSIA
superannuated and utterly useless contingent may be eliminated
from consideration, as certain never again to be mobilised.
Of the Austrian corps I have already spoken. The idea was
that this corps, in reality a small brigade organised on the Austrian
Austrian model, should serve as the nucleus of a new system for
c °rps f-j ie w } 10 i e arm y. In common with most other schemes of
Persian reorganisation, the scheme came to nothing, and its only
survivors are the young European-trained native officers, who are
drafted as instructors into the various infantry regiments.
A Diplomatic Report in 1886 returned the army expenditure of
the preceding year as 613,000h, plus 81,000 kharvars of grain,
Cost of the valued at 55,000h, or a total of 668,000L I have seen
army other reports in which the total varied from 585,000^. to
850,000L The revenue tables, which I publish elsewhere, return the
expenditure for 1889 as 1,800,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
, or 524,000k But I can
not be sure that these figures are quite exhaustive; and in Persia
I received, from a reliable source, the total of 2,500,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
as
the real annual outlay on the army. This was equivalent, at the
then rate of exchange, to 714,000k, which we may accept as the
mean annual charge. If we contrast this with the five millions
sterling of Nadir and further remember that a large fraction of the
smaller sum never reaches the army at all, we may find a far from
imperfect clue to the lamentable decadence of the military resources
of Iran.
Having now analysed and explained in detail the various ingre
dients of the Persian army, I pass on to say something of the system
Persian as a whole, of military administration in Persia, and of the
officers personnel, both of the officers and the men.
Of the Persian officers as a class no one has ever been found to
speak except in terms of contempt. Ignorant of military science,
destitute of esprit de corps, selected and promoted with no reference
to aptitude, they are an incubus under which no military system
could do otherwise than languish. When it is known that the
command of regiments is sometimes inherited, sometimes vested in
the hands of infants, and commonly bought and sold, a high stamp
of officers is an impossible result. The theory would appear to be
that an officer in Persia, like a poet elsewhere, wasato*, non Jit. A
child of eleven years of age was, at the time of my visit, a
field marshal in the Persian army and, at the Royal levee which I
attended at Teheran, stood between the Oommander-in-Chief and an
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 [426v] (855/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x00003e> [accessed 7 April 2025]
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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