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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [448r] (898/1814)
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.
RAILWAYS
637
further advantage, if ever constructed, and brought into com
munication with Europe, of depositing the British soldier, not
merely at Kurrachi, but on the Afghan frontier itself, and at the
probable theatre of war.
Should such a line ever be realised, and should it be connected
with the Mediterranean, and thereby with Europe, the junction
Asia Minor ^ ifrcu© likely to be effected by correspondence with rail-
Trmik roads already in existence in Asia Minor, than by the
railway construction of a separate debouchure and port in the
Syrian recess of the
Levant
A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
. There are, at the present moment
three separate railway systems in Asia Minor. The first conducts
from Scutari, opposite Constantinople, to Ismidt, fifty-six miles,
and is now being continued to Angora in the heart of Asia Minor.
The second runs from Smyrna to Dinair, 230 miles in the interior.
The third is a short line of forty miles in length, connecting the
port of Mersina, near Tarsus in Cilicia, with Adana. The en
gineering difficulties of railroads in so mountainous a country as
Asia Minor are great, the impediments arising from the vices of
Ottoman administration are many, and the commercial returns are,
in any case, for some time likely to be small. But it is conceivable
that in the future the first two of these lines may be joined, or
that the first of them may be protracted to a point at which it
would ultimately connect with the Trans-Persian line which I have
sketched. In such a case, the long-talked-of overland route to
India might be supplied by the Oriental Express running from
Calais to Constantinople, in conjunction with the Asia Minor rail
ways, continuing from the other side of the Bosphorus. In the
far-off future a supplementary connection with the Mediterranean
might be supplied by a Syrian line. But the whole of these pro
jects appertain to a distance so remote that I shall not live to see
them realised, if realisation ever comes, and that prophecy approxi
mates with suspicious closeness to conjecture.
I have heard suggested another alternative overland route to
India, in the shape of a railroad from Port Said, at the mouth of
^ ^ the Suez Canal, across the heart of Arabia, to some point
Arabian on the Persian Gfulf. Such a scheme appeals to me to
line suffer from all the disadvantages of the Euphrates Valley
route in an exaggerated degree, without any of the redeeming
compensations. The children of Israel wandered for forty years
in a section of the intervening wilderness; but I should be sorry
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 [448r] (898/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x000069> [accessed 2 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