![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎491r] (992/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1006.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎491r] (992/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [491r] (992/1814)
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
25
- the
Wed
isuits
Wes,
oany,
i the
uote,
)f the
ahan,
rnier,
)omp,
)read.
arch’d
han a
every
chance
cannot
ing of
ly four
illeries
i very
lumber
me out
iot 600
broken
altered
buried
in he-
)W, and
y below
lived i n
was sent
larnielites
Abbas in
vere sent
ied works
these, were encountered the slovenliness and the filth of the un
regenerate East. Such as it was, however—a strange but truly
Oriental mixture of splendour and squalor, of dignity and decay—
the city continued with little alteration till the first quarter of the
eighteenth century, when, the virtues of the reigning dynasty
having been sapped by an inherited course of debauchery and
intoxication, the capital and its monarch both fell a disgraceful
prey to the Afghans in 1722. The horrors of the siege—when
the Zendeh Hud was choked with corpses, when mothers devoured
their children in the extremity of famine, and when the inhuman
conqueror, after massacring all the princes and nobles on whom he
could lay hands, surrendered the city for fifteen days to an
indiscriminate carnage—have been powerfully described by the
Polish Jesuit Krusinski, who was himself a resident in the capital
at the time. 1 From this shock, and from the brutal savagery of
the Afghans, who overturned, and sacked, and defiled out of all
recognition, palaces, and avenues, and gardens, and whatever of
beauty or grandeur met the eye, Isfahan has never recovered. It
was patronised by Nadir Shah, but was less esteemed by him than
Meshed. Kerim Khan Zend shifted the seat of Government to
Shiraz. Agha Mohammed Khan Kajar shifted it again to Teheran,
when he dismantled the fortifications of Isfahan. Fath Ali Shah
sometimes visited the city, and ultimately died there in 1834. It
has only once, in 1851, been favoured by the presence of the reign
ing monarch. Under the depressing influence of all these circum
stances, Isfahan has fallen from its high estate, and now in
perpetual sackcloth and ashes—no inapt metaphor to apply to the
present appearance of the town—bewails an irrecoverable past.
The method which I shall adopt of describing the city will be
to give an indication of its general features, and then, step by step,
Plan of to visit its most renowned or interesting localities, de-
th e city picting at each stage the contrast between a past of
grandeur and a present of sorrowfulness and decay. The only
plan of Isfahan that I know appears among the plates of M. Goste s
splendid work, entitled 4 Monuments Modernes de la Perse.
Koughly speaking, Isfahan lies to the north of the Zendeh Hud,
Julfa to the south. In about the centre of the former is situated
the great block of buildings, gardens, and pavilions constituting
1 History of the Revolutions of Persia, taken from the Memoirs of Fathei
Krusinski, by Pere Ducerceau. Translated into English. 1729.
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 [491r] (992/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x0000c1> [accessed 18 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