![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎485r] (980/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0994.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎485r] (980/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [485r] (980/1814)
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.
FROM TEHERAN TO ISFAHAN
15
building was in repair, barely a wall intact. Both the cobbled road
way and the houses that lined it were in an equal state of decay, and
it was as melancholy to see the one as it was to ride over the other.
From Kashan, the still surviving name for Persian earthenware,
viz. Kashi-kari, was derived, and this city 5 m whose neighbourhood
^ . good clay was to be found, as well as colouring materials,
was one of the chief centres of the industry. A larger
number of the beautiful vases with iridescent lustre, or reflet metal-
lique, which are the most cherished among the curios of Persia, have
been found at Kashan than elsewhere, but there is no positive proof
that they were manufactured here. On the other hand, most of
the tiles, so plentifully and effectively employed in the decoration
of mosques, were burned in Kashani ovens. 1
It is, perhaps, to mercantile habits, pursued without a break
for centuries, that must be attributed the widespread reputation of
People ^ ie ^ as ^ an ^ s ^ or Pusillanimity of character. Their fame
in this respect has passed into a proverb, even in a countrv
where courage did not appear to me to be popular ; and among the
many stories to which it has given birth, perhaps the best is that of
the 30,000 men of Kashan and Isfahan (a sister-city as regards the
same attributes), who, when Nadir Shah disbanded his army on
their return from India, applied for an escort of 100 musketeers to
conduct them safely to their homes. Possibly a somewhat enerva
ting effect is produced by the great heat in summer, which Chardin
ascribed to £ the high mountain on the south, the reverberation of
which so furiously heats the place in the dog days that it scalds again.’
Touching the scorpions, the black variety of Kashan has enjoyed
a prodigious fame, and was commemorated by El Istakhri as early
as the tenth century. So venomous was their bite that
one of the familar forms of expressing hatred was to pray
that your enemy might either be stung by a Kashani scorpion or
be made Governor of Gilan. John Struys, the Dutchman, declared
that, in order to escape these pests, the people slept in hammocks,
and took an antidote made of filings of copper tempered with vinegar
and honey. But the more popular cure was the homoeopathic ap
plication of the oil of the scorpion itself, which was extracted by
frying the insect. Olearius, the secretary to the Holstein Embassy
in 1637, was bitten by a scorpion at Kashan and derived great
1 For the entire subject, vide Sir R. Murdoch Smith’s Handbook on Persian Art ;
Benjamin’s Persia, cap. xi.; 4 Persian Ceramics,’ by Professor W. A. Neumann, in
Oester. Manats. (1884), pp. 257-63 ; and Persian Ceramic Art, by H. Wallis, 1891.
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 [485r] (980/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x0000b5> [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