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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [511v] (1035/1814)
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.
56
PERSIA
respected Dr. Bruce, of whom it may be said that he is as good a type
as can anywhere be seen of the nineteenth-century Crusader. In
an earlier age the red cross would have been upon his
England shoulder, and he would have been hewing infidels in con-
Mission U 0 ly Sepulchre, instead of translating the Bible,
and teaching m schools at Julfa. Gioing out to Peisia foi the fiist
time in 1869, he has been engag’ed ever since m a levision of the
translation of the blew and Old Testaments into I eisian, and m a
translation of the Book of Common Prayer into the Armenian
dialect of Julfa. The establishment over which he presides is large
and commodious, comprising a fine church with accommodation
for 300, and a congregation in 1889 of 184 native baptised
Christians and 90 communicants; a boys’ school, which in the
same vear was attended by 177 pupils, from the ages of six to
sixteen ; a girls’ school with an attendance of 164 ; a staff of two
or three European clergy, and of thirty lay teachers, native and Euro
peans, and a dispensary for Mohammedans and Christians alike. I
shall, I hope, be doing no injustice to Dr. Bruce’s self-sacrificing and
unflagging labours, if I say that his converts are drawn exclusively
from the Christian and not from the Moslem fold. Mohammedans
have been baptised ; but as I have elsewhere said they have relapsed,
and I have never myself encountered a full-grown converted
Mussulman. It would, perhaps, savour of disrespect to an institu
tion excellently managed, if I added that here, as in many other
parts of the East, the results do not, in my opinion, justify the
expenditure both of labour and of money. The mission is not over
popular with the Zil-es-Sultan, and is naturally much disliked by
the Armenian hierarchy, who look upon its agents as poachers on
their own preserves. To an English traveller it is in the highest
degree agreeable to alight, in a strange land, upon a small colony of
his own countrymen, which is also a centre of hospitable culture
and of learning.
Finally, there is resident at Julfa a small European lay com
munity numbering about a dozen and composed of the officials
European ^ ie Indo-European Telegraph Department, and of the
colony representatives of the British or foreign mercantile houses
already named, who are engaged in trade in Isfahan. Nothing can
exceed the friendliness and warmth of welcome that are extended by
this little community to strangers. I see no reason myself, beyond
that of old custom, why they should continue to reside in Julfa
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 [511v] (1035/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000024> [accessed 4 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