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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [490v] (991/1814)
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.
24
PERSIA
churches of the principal monastic fraternities of Europe in the
city. The Augustines, Carmelites, and Capuchins were allowed
separate quarters belonging to the Crown in Isfahan ; 1 the Jesuits
and Dominicans had convents in Julfa. Of the various factories,
that of the representative of the British East India Company,
from 1617 to the Afghan invasion in 1722, was situated in the
Bazaar near the Great Meidan. It is perhaps only fair to quote,
as a set-off to the doubtless exaggerated descriptions of some of the
afore-mentioned travellers when relating the wonders of Isfahan,
the cooler and more cynical verdict of the French jeweller Tavernier,
who was not to be deluded by surface show or factitious pomp,
but who mercilessly stripped the tinsel from the gilt gingerbread.
This is what he said :—
Ispahan in general, unless it be the Meydan, and some few arch d
streets, where the merchants live, is more like a great village than a
city ; the Houses standing at a distance one from the other with every
one a garden, but ill look’d after, not having anything in it perchance
but only one pitiful tree .... As for the King’s Palace, I cannot
make any handsome description of it in regard there is nothing of
beauty either in the Building or in the Gardens. Excepting only four
rooms which they call Divans, I saw nothing but pitiful low galleries
and so narrrow that hardly two men could pass abrest in ’em.
As for the Christian Missions and monks, he entertained a very
poor opinion'of their propaganda, for he wrote :—
The number of the Religious Teachers is far greater than the number
of hearers, for in all Ispahan and Julfa, take the Franks that come out
of Europe, or born in Persia, as well men as women, there are not 600
persons that profess the Catholic Religion.
He further declared that the city was ill laid-out, the walls broken
by great gaps, the streets narrow, unequal, and dark, encumbered
with heaps of ordure and the carcasses of dead animals, and buried
in summer dust or winter mire. We are justified, indeed, in be
lieving that the pomp of Isfahan was limited to outer show, and
to the appurtenances of royalty ; and that, one grade only below
1 Of these the Augustines were the first European monks who ever lived in
Isfahan. Their first representative was Antonio di Govea, who in 1598 was sent
by the Archbishop of Goa as ambassador for Spain and Portugal. The Carmelites
under Pfere Simon arrived as envoys from Pope Clement VIII. to Shah Abbas in
1608. The Capuchins (Pere Pacifique de Provins and Pere Gabriel) were sent
out by Richelieu with letters from Louis XIV. in 1628. Vide the published works
of A. di Govea, P. Pacif. de Provins, and P. Gabriel de Chinon.
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 [490v] (991/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x0000c0> [accessed 4 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