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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [500r] (1012/1814)
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
39
7 other
bailee,
^fehan.
set out
1 lovely
fe to be
01 many
-ed atop,,
Persia.
men-
bance of
n. Its
derived
that the
i Abbas
idid ap-
s in its
decay of
At the
corridor
s of the
)ked out
hannels r
nance to
ctagonal
e of the
way for
, usually
chen^Sy
eway for
Is corre-
loorways
Hr these
tched on
>, Nig ht '
pavili° llS
where,
■ghers of
Isfahan assembled to sip that beverage and to inhale their kalians,
the while, as Fryer puts it,
Night drawing on, all the Pride of Spahaun was met in the
Chaurbaug, and the Grandees were Airing themselves, prancing about
with their numerous Trains, striving to outvie each other in Pomp and
Generosity.
At the bottom, quays lined the banks of the river, and were
bordered with the mansions of the nobility.
Such was the Chehar Bagh in the plenitude of its fame. But
now what a tragical contrast ! The channels are empty, their
stone borders crumbled and shattered, the terraces are broken
down, the partenes are unsightly bare patches, the trees, all lopped
and pollarded, have been chipped and hollowed out 1 or cut down
for fuel by the soldiery of the Zil, the side pavilions are abandoned
and tumbling to pieces, and the gardens are wildernesses. Two
centuries of decay could never make the Champs Elysees in Paris,
the Enter der Linden in Berlin, or Rotten Row in London, look
one half as miserable as does the ruined avenue of Shah Abbas.
It is in itself an epitome of modern Iran.
Towards the upper end of the Chehar Bagh on the eastern side,
is a once splendid covered bazaar, through which one can turn
Madresseli as ^ e en ^ er Ateidan. It is now empty and forlorn ;
i-Shah but a short time ago was turned into stables for his
I III Sell I ^
gholams, by the Zil-es-Sultan. 2 On the same side is the
entrance to the Hasht Behesht. A little further down stands a
building that is still one of the spectacles of Isfahan. This is the
Madresseh-i-Shah Husein, called also Madresseh-i-Mader-i-Shah,
which was built, according to Krusinski, about the year 1710, by
that monarch as c a monastery for the Dervishes.’ The Polish
Jesnit further says that the chief gate was of solid silver; but he
probably alludes to the chased silver plates with which the wooden
doors are adorned. Beneath a deeply recessed archway, vaulted
with honeycomb decoration, we pass into a dome-covered portico
or vestibule, on either side of which petty hucksters sell fruit on
1 Fraser (A Winter's Journey, vol. ii. p. 70) mentions a native superstition
that when the chenar attains three hundred years, it perishes of self-combnstion,
and appears to have been taken in by it. I prefer the Isfahan rationalisation.
In the early part of the century, a riot having broken out in this bazaar, the
governor planted a cannon at its entrance, and fired straight down the central
avenue into the crowd, killing or maiming everyone there—a slight contrast to the
methods of Trafalgar Square.
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 [500r] (1012/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00000d> [accessed 22 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