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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [503v] (1019/1814)
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.
44
PERSIA
greater contrast cannot be imagined than between Isfahan a few
years ago, and the same seat of government now. Then it was the
capital of a prince who affected the monarch, and resounded with
the pomp and circumstance of military rule ; now it is the residence
of a provincial governor, whose power is precarious, and who is all
but destitute of armed men. Such is no uninteresting example
of the operation in Persia of the irresponsible authority of the
sovereign.
I have elsewhere mentioned that at the height of his power the
Zil controlled an army of nearly 21,000 men. He took immense
interest in the equipment and proficiency of these troops,
Aimy whom he clad in a variety of foreign uniforms, and whom
he constantly paraded for the edification of foreign visitors. One
Kerim. Khan, known as the Mir-i-Panj, commanded the Zil’s
cavalry in those days and still follows the fortunes of his master;
but only 400 to 500 horsemen are now available, although in the
barracks and stores, which were well built and maintained, are
equipments and arms for 1,000 cavalry, and rifles and ammunition
it is said, for 10,000 men. The policy of the Zil, in treacherously
slaying the
Ilkhani
The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran.
of the Bakhtiari tribes, has permanently alien
ated from him those potent auxiliaries, upon whom a wise and ambi
tious governor of the central provinces would have relied for help.
South of Isfahan, and separating it from a number of former
suburbs, of which the sole survival is the Armenian colony of
The Zendeii Jtdfa, flows the Zendeh or Zaiendeh Pud. In a
Rud later chapter I shall trace this river to its springs in the
Kuh-i-rang among the Bakhtiari mountains. Rapid and rushing
in its upper courses, it spreads over a wider bed as it enters the plain
of Lahinj an, to the south-west of Isfahan. There its waters are largely
drawn off for purposes of irrigation, and by the time the river has
reached the storeyed bridges of the capital, though swollen in spring
time to a powerful torrent, at other seasons it fills but a contracted
channel or lies in detached pools. Below Isfahan it fertilises the
districts of Berahan and Rudesht, in which its flow is regulated
by the bunds or dykes of Ali Kuli Khan and Mervan. Later on
its surplus waters are lost in the Gavkhaneh marsh.
At Isfahan the Zendeh Rud is crossed by five bridges of dif
fering style and antiquity. Highest up the stream and most ancient
of these is the Pul-i-Marnun, 1 which was built by Shah Tahmasp,
1 Kaempfer named it Maranbunn, and explained it as meaning ‘viper-hunter ’
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 [503v] (1019/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000014> [accessed 6 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