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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [509r] (1030/1814)
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
53
1820, Ussher 3,000 souls in 1861, Goldsmid 500 families in 1874.
The total population of Julfa was given to me as 2,500, of whom
eighty per cent, are Armenians. 1
There are practically four distinct ingredients in the population
of Julfa; (1) the Armenians proper, constituting the bulk of the
Armenian community; (2) the United or Catholic Armenians, a
community sma R schism; (3) the Church of England Mission ; and
(4) the European mercantile and Telegraph element. A few
words about each of these. The Armenians proper are under the
spiritual jurisdiction of an Arachnurt or Archbishop, who is
invariably a monk from Echmiadzin. He resides in a binlding,
formerly a convent, adjoining the Egglesia Wang (Big Church) or
Cathedral. Attached to this establishment is also a nunnery,
whose annals have not been free from flagrant scandal, and which
shelters a number of old spinsters who visit the sick, teach, and
knit socks. The younger and more active part of the male popu
lation is annually drafted to India, Java, and other places in the
East, where, in situations of business and profit, they speedily lose
all desire to return to their unprepossessing homes. The con
sequence is, that only the residuum is left behind; and while some
of these are engaged in business as carpenters, market gardeners,
etc., a good many have embarked on a trade which secures them
neither popularity nor consideration, viz., the manufacture of
liquor, quite as much for surreptitious Persian, as well as fcr
avowed home consumption. Dr. Wills, who lived in Julfa many
years, presents a very unfavourable portrait of the Julfa Armenian.
So common is drunkenness, that his Armenian cook would say to
him on a Sunday night: c Dinner finished, sir; if you no orders,
I go get drunk with my priest; 5 while of the average specimen
he drew the following picture :—
The Hamadan Armenian is hardworking and respectable, if
occasionally a drunkard, looked on by his Persian fellow-subjects
as a friend and a good citizen. The Isfahani looks upon the Julfa
Armenian as a race apart, and merely the panclerer to his vices and
the maker of intoxicating liquors ; and the hangdog Armenian with his
sham Turk or European dress, and the bottle of arrack in his pocket,
scowls staggering along in secure insolence, confident in the moral
1 For the Armenians of Julfa, vide a report by Eugene Bore in his Cor re-
S2)ondanee et Memoires, vol. ii. pp. 374-92 ; and for modern Julfa, vide C. J. Wills,
In the Land, fyc., caps. xii. and xiv.; and Mrs. Bishop, Journeys in Persia, vol. i.
letters xii. xiii.
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 [509r] (1030/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00001f> [accessed 5 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