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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [521v] (1055/1814)
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.
endowed the world with an offspring numbered at 1,000—a perform
ance that must have greatly stirred the envy of Fath Ali Shah, the
philoprogenitive Kajar. The rock, with its strange superstructure,
narrows towards the eastern end, where, from below, it looks like
the bow of some gigantic ship. This was the spot from which
Zeki Khan, the inhuman half-brother of Kerim Khan Zend, who
had assumed the real sovereignty on the Vekil’s death, while
marching northwards in 1779 against his nephew All Murad
Khan, ordered the leading inhabitants of Yezdikhast, one after the
other, to be hurled down, because the villagers declined to satisfy
his merciless cupidity. Eighteen had already perished. Foi his
nineteenth victim the monster selected a seyicl, whose wife and
daughter he commanded at the same time to be delivered to the
soldiery. This sacrilege proved too much for the tolerance even of
his own attendants. That night they cut the ropes of his tent,
which collapsed upon him. The villagers rushed in and satisfied
a legitimate vengeance by stabbing the brute to death. 1
At the base of the cliffs are a number of caves hewn in the
rocks, which are used as sheep-folds and stables. The chapar-
hhdneh is in the bottom of the ravine on the near side of the
stream below the town. On the far side is a
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
, origin
ally of the Sefavi age, but restored in the early years of the present
century by a governor of Fars. Climbing the reverse side of the
gully. I turned my back on Yezdikhast with the reflection that it
was one of the most curious places I had ever seen, and continued
my ride towards Shulgistan.
In summer an alternative route, lying more to the west and
shorter by twenty-five miles than the postal road, is frequently
Alternative taken from Yezdikhast to Shiraz. It runs via Dehgerdu,
route Asupas, Ujan (where Bahrain Gur, the sporting Sassanian
monarch, lost his life in a quicksand while pursuing the wild
ass, from which he was named), and Mayin. 2 But it is not to be
1 The story is first related by Ensign Franklin, who was at Yezdikhast only
seven years after the tragedy had occurred (Observations made on a Tour, &c.,
316-22) Sir R. K. Porter, in 1818, and other travellers at about the same time,
conversed at Yezdikhast with an old man, the sole survivor of the catastrophe,
who though cruelly maimed by the fall, had not been killed by it, but had managed
to crawl away and save his life.
2 This route was taken and is described by both Tavernier and Thevenot in the
seventeenth century, and in more recent times by J. S. Buckingham (1816), Travels,
vol i pp. 450-75; Colonel Johnson (1817), Journey from India, cap. vii.; Sir
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 [521v] (1055/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000038> [accessed 6 April 2025]
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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