![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎490r] (990/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1004.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎490r] (990/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [490r] (990/1814)
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
23
caravanserais, 27o batlis, and twelve cemeteries • and that the various
computations of the total of inhabitants varied between 600,000
The Sefavi an d 1,100,000. 1 The figures of Olearius, viz. 18,000
capital houses and 500,000 people, do not fall greatly below the
lesser total. No wonder that the Oriental hyperbole should have
vented itself in the vainglorious boast that 4 Isfahan nisf i Jehan,’
i.e. ‘ Isfahan is half the world.’ Kaempfer and Struys credited it,
the suburbs included, with an even ampler circuit, which they
fixed at sixteen farsakhs, or forty-eight miles. In the time of
Abbas II. the king possessed, in addition to his own numerous
residences, lo7 royal palaces (probably in many cases only private
mansions) in different parts of the city, acquired either by inheri
tance, purchase, or seizure, and devoted to the entertainment of
foreign envoys and strangers of consideration. When the former
were received in public audience in the Chehel Situn, or Forty
Pillars, all business was suspended for the day ; a magnificent but
tedious ceremonial preceded and delayed the approach of the
ambassador to the footstool of royalty ; gorgeous banquets, cul
minating in general intoxication, followed; while in the Great Square
the populace were regaled with the exhibitions of wrestlers, fencers,
jugglers, and acrobats, with polo-matches and puppet-shows; and
with combats of animals, bulls, rams, buffaloes, wolves, and, on
great occasions, lions and panthers. When, night fell fantastic
fireworks illumined and prolonged the festive scene. In one part
of the city stood a great tower sixty feet high, and twenty feet
thick, called the Kelleh Minar, composed of the horns and skulls
of wild animals slain by one of the earlier monarchs in the chase. 2
The favour and the prestige in which foreigners were held, and the
latitude allowed by the liberal-minded Abbas and his successors to
the Christian religion, were exemplified by the establishments and
1 In illustration of the immense size of Isfahan, Chardin tells the stoiy of a
slave who fled from his master to another part of the city, opened a shop there,
and remained undiscovered for years. He did not himself, however, think the
population greater than that of London.
2 Commonly attributed to Shah Ismail or Shah Tahmasp, but doubtless of
later origin. Olearius says there were the heads of two thousand stags and
gazelles that were all killed at one hunting by Shah Tahmasp. Chardin mentions
the popular belief that the architect’s head was placed on the apex by the royal
sportsman, because he had said that the skull of some peculiar great beast was
wanted for the summit. Engravings of the tower occur in the works of Chardin
and Sanson. Herbert and Tavernier both declared that a great many of the
skulls were human.
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 [490r] (990/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x0000bf> [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