![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎443r] (888/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0900.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎443r] (888/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [443r] (888/1814)
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.
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n UI c oiiat
n Sea coast
icia) or
:land (Arada
e ?. b y ^ereat
d ' rectio11 ‘a tteL
’ ° r on a
! railway '
RAILWAYS
633
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and lately
ulf ~' a total ist a|
Cross ^ Euphrates
ie latter ri ver, so as toll
eiI ig again required r
Busrah or Koweit. Bi_
Is placed before the M
e volumes referredto, 1
>ad, if constructed as a |
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he European 4 feet 8}i
■e, varied from
eit—more
•our—shij
either to Kurrachi,
a land line would con
Such, in outline,
-native land route
icrities, was ur?i f
popular attention
attention wtocli' 11 '
which it g« e
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confess to having felt, without having ever succumbed to, the
fascination. Closer study, however, and, still more, a visit at
different times to both sides of the country concerned—viz. to Syria
and to Mesopotamia—have convinced me both that the project is
unsound, and that it does not, for the present at any rate, lie
within the domain of practical politics. Without recapitulating
the pros and cons of the question, I will briefly marshal the argu
ments that have led me to that conclusion.
The grounds upon which such a railway should be advocated,
and by which the policy of constructing it must, in the last resort,
be determined, are fourfold—physical, political, military,
Physical an ^ economic. I believe that in each of these respects
the scheme of a Euphrates Valley railway, if tried, will be found
wanting. The physical obstacles consist in the character of the
country and in the climate. Dismissing the preliminary difficulty
that would be encountered in piercing the Syrian coast range as
one that engineers might reasonably be expected to overcome,
there remains the fact that, upon the more northerly of the lines
suggested, there are no places of the faintest importance before
reaching Baghdad except Antioch and Aleppo, and that the railway,
for the most part, would pass over bare and uncultivated plains,
whilst upon the more southerly or Palmyrene route it would
traverse what cannot be otherwise described than as a waterless
desert. The temperature on these sandy wastes is excessively
torrid and trying during the summer months, and I decline to
believe that during half the year any general in the world won
consent to pack his soldiers into third-class carriages for con
veyance across these terrible thousand miles, at least if he anti
cipated using them in any other capacity than as hospita in
mates at the end. Still less would he do so if, as contemplated
by an extension of the scheme, to which I shall presently refei,
this section of a thousand miles were only the forerunner to another
and longer continuation, through a tract of country even less
prepossessing^ through the literature on the
subiect to note the almost absolute unanimity with which the wis es
or attitude of Turkey in the matter have been ignored.
Political coun try traversed is from end to end under Turkish
dominion ; not a rail could be laid, or a bridge constructed, or a
ticket taken, or a dividend paid-or, as is more likely, not paid
*
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 [443r] (888/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x00005f> [accessed 5 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