![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎493r] (996/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1010.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎493r] (996/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [493r] (996/1814)
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
27
since been planted; but the canal was dry when I saw it, a sub
stitute being provided by occasional fountains of drinking-water.
In the centre of the Meidan, in the Sefavi days, stood a mast or
maypole, twenty-five feet high, on which was placed, on great
occasions, a cup of gold, but on ordinary occasions an apple or
melon, to be shot at by archers passing at full gallop below. 1 Its
place was afterwards taken by a more sinister object, viz., the hainik
or execution pole, with notches on the side, by which the culprit
was hanged up by the heels, and subsequently dashed to the ground,
or else had his throat cut. This, too, has disappeared. Two great
basins of water with porphyry coping adorned the two ends of the
piazza, both of which survive, and are kept full. In front of
the Ali Kapi, or Palace Gate, over 100 cannon, the spoils of
Ormuz, were planted behind a wooden balustrade. These also
have vanished. The only other permanent objects in the Meidan
were two marble columns, which served as the goal posts in the
game of Pall Mall or Polo, called chug (in ^ which was verv popular
with the old Persian nobility, but has also died a natural death. 2
In the daytime the.Meidan was all but filled with booths or tents
balanced on poles, under which the petty hucksters displayed their
wares upon the ground; 3 but on great occasions all these were
cleared away, and in the evenings were ordinarily replaced by the
shows of mummers, jugglers, and acrobats, by groups of story
tellers, wrestlers and dervishes, by cock-fights and ram-fights, and
by the tents of prostitutes. All these are gone, with the exception
of a few stalls at the northern extremity.
Here there still stands in a bay or recess a majestic portico,
flanked by arched galleries, and opening into the Kaiserieh or
Nakkara- niain Bazaar. This lofty and ornamental structure, in
Khaneh. the main arch of which is a painting of Shah Ismail
or Abbas in combat, is the Nakkara-Khaneh or Drum-Tower of
1 Angiolello saw Shah Ismail bring down seven out of ten shots at Tabriz,
circ. 1510; and Tavernier saw Shah Sefi L, who was a great athlete, strike three
cups in five courses at Isfahan.
It was played by numbers varying from five to twenty a side. P. della
Valle described a game that he saw at Kazvin in 1618. Abdul Malek of the
Samanid dynasty was killed by a fall from his horse while playing chugan.
Sell I. and Abbas II. were both excellent performers. Ouseley has an erudite
note on the game {Travels, vol. i. app. 6), but is very wide of the mark when he
traces to it the Cricket of England and the Golf of Scotland.
3 Tavernier’s illustration of the Meidan represents it as covered with these
booths.
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 [493r] (996/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x0000c5> [accessed 2 April 2025]
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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