Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [513r] (1038/1814)
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.
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FROM TEHERAN TO ISFAHAN
word signifying a house on a high place or terrace) frame the
landscape with their gaunt and ragged outlines. In a recess or
terrace on their northern front, less than half-way up and overlook
ing the capital, a pavilion or summer-house was built by Shah
Suleiman, and called Takht-i-Suleiman, upon the site of a former
hermitage. Only the ruins of the villa now remain, but the climb
is repaid by the fine view. A neighbouring rocky height supports
some ruins, also of modern date, but bearing the name of Kaleh or
Takht-i-Rustam, from a tradition that the national hero built a
fortress on this site. At the foot of the Kuh-i-Suffa was situated
the famous palace of Ferahabad (Abode of Joy), to which its royal
architect and master, Shah Sultan Husein, was so devotedly at
tached that when the Afghans invaded Persia, he was quite ready
to sacrifice his capital if only the barbarians would leave him his
palace. The latter was distinguished less for its buildings than for
its wonderful terraces, and lakes, and gardens, which were the ad
miration of observers. The Afghans, it is needless to say, spared
neither the scruples nor the person of the accommodating monarch.
Ferahabad, having been hastily evacuated by him, was occupied bv
them and was burned to the ground when, a few years later, they
were expelled from Isfahan. Its site is now a wilderness of ruins.
But little more imposing are the remains of the celebrated castle
of Tabarrak, which was the deposit of the Royal Treasure under
the Sefavi kings, and whose fortifications were described in such
glowing terms by Chardin, Kaempfer, and others. Already, in
1704, Le Brun found them shattered and tottering, and the sur
viving walls are now little more than heaps of clay.
Truly, as he turns his back on Isfahan after completing the
local itinerary, which I have here marked out for him, may the
traveller observe, in the words of Shelley—
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair !
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Supplementary Routes.
Kashan to Isfahan (rm Natanz), A. H. Schindler (1879), Zeit. d. Gesell.f.
JErd. x. Berlin, 1881, pp. 307-66.
Kum to Gulpaioan or Khonsar, E. Stack (1881), Six Months in Persia,
vol. ii. cap. y.; Col. M. S. Bell (1884), Blackwood's Magazine, June 1889.
Isfahan to Gulpaigan, E. Stack (1881), ibid. ; Col. Bell (1884), ibid.
Isfahan to Kangavar, E. Flandin (1840), Voyage en Perse, vol. i. cap. xxviii.;
E. Floyer (1877), Unexplored Beluchistan, caps, xvi.-xviii.
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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- 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
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