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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [483v] (977/1814)
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.
12
PERSIA
shrine is a particularly favourite sanctuary for Mussulman refugees ;
and many is the malefactor who has escaped retribution by a flight
to the inviolate asylum of its walls. Apparently, too, the good
folk of Kum are without honour in their own country; for there
is a Persian proverb that says: ‘ A dog of Kashan is better than a
noble of Kum, albeit a dog is better than a man of Kashan.’
In leaving Kum, it took me three-quarters of an hour to get
quit of the maze of intricate streets and alleys of which the greater
Postal part of the city outside the bazaar is composed, and to
emerge upon the open country. There a fast gallop
on an excellent little horse conducted me to the post-house of
Pasangun, standing, with a
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
, near the base of a range
of hills on the south-east. Skirting this range, the track now
becomes very stony, then crosses a stream, passes the big cara
vanserai of Shurab (salt water), which was built about eighty
years ago, and winds by a long and arid pass through the range,
till it debouches upon another plain, whereon the chapar-hhaneli
and
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
of Sinsin (erected by the Amin-ed-Dowleh, a
prominent minister of Path Ali Shah) are situated immediately at
the foot of the hills. Sinsin was once a flourishing place, but was
ruined by the Turkomans at the end of the last century—to such
a distance did those incorrigible freebooters (of the Yomut tribe in
this instance) push their marauding expeditions. Malcolm, on his
way up to Teheran in 1810, himself conversed with one of the
survivors of the catastrophe. Thence, over a perfectly level ex
panse, we press forward to Kashan, thin wreaths of smoke in the
distance betraying the existence of the city at the base of what is
sometimes called, for want of a general title, the Kuhrud range
(from the village of which I shall speak presently), but is in reality
a spui of the same mountain system that continues without a break
from Kashan to Yezd, and thence to Kerman.
Local tradition ascribes the foundation of Kashan 1 to Zobeideh,
the wife of Harun-er-Rashid. But it appears certain that the town
Kashan ex i s ted much earlier; for there is in a native historian a
reference both to Kashan and Kum as having contributed
a force of 20,000 soldiers to the army of the last Sassanian
monarch ; and some have seen in the name a contraction from
I or Kashan, in addition to the authorities quoted in the case of Kum, vide
Olearius (1637), Narrative of Embassy ; John Bell (1717), Travels ; and Madame
Dieulafoy (1881), Perse.
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 [483v] (977/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x0000b2> [accessed 8 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