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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [524v] (1061/1814)
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.
lines a trilingual inscription, containing the words ‘Adam Kurush
Khshayathiya Hakhamanishiya,’ in the Persian, Susian and Assyrian
tongues—i.e. ‘I am Cyrus, the King, the Achsemenian.’ The upper
extremity of this great shaft is curiously mortised in order to receive
the beams of the roof that covered the hall of whose walls it formed a
portion.
Another 300 yards in a southerly direction conducts us to the
fourth collection of remains, which consists of a single circular limestone
column, 36 feet high, and 3 ft. 4 in. diameter at the base,
and ° lumn destitute of a capital, and standing on a small plinth of black
pilasters basalt, in the centre of an oblong paved space, the outer
walls of which are marked by three hollowed angle-piers, similar to tha t
already described, each bearing on one of its surfaces the same tri
lingual inscription that proclaims the handiwork of Cyrus. This is
one of the few unfluted columns that now remain in Persia, 1 and may
with little hesitation be referred to an earlier and less developed archi
tectural style than the fluted pillars of Istakhr and Persepolis. The
enclosure further contains remains of the bases of eight columns, and
the stumps or bases of former doorways, on which are visible a row of
feet, that doubtless once belonged to a processional bas-relief similar to
those at Persepolis. The probable character of the building has secured
for it from recent writers the name of the Palace of Cyrus.
At about half the distance to the south-east is the platform that
once supported another building or palace, the bases of some of whose
columns, in two rows of six each, are still visible ; while at
figureot^ the distance of eight yards from one of these stands a squared
Cyrus limestone block, 11 ft. 7 in. high, whose upper surface formerly
displayed the same proud assertion of authorship, 2 while below it
is sculped in low relief—now defaced and indistinct from ill usage and
the lapse of time—the famous winged figure that has been variously
taken for the fravashi or genius of Cyrus, and for Cyrus himself.
The figure is in profile, more than life-size, and faces towards the
right. Prom the head springs the strange symbolical crown that
has been found on Egyptian sculptures, and which puzzled travellers
have compared to three decanters in a row with balls on the top.
It is formed of two rams’ horns, surmounted by two urcei, which m
turn are surmounted by the hemhem or crown of Harpocrates. The
1 Morier in 1809 mentioned the remains of another at Istakhr (First Journey,
p. 142), but it has since disappeared. The columns of the peribolos of the tomb of
Cyrus were also unfluted. So are the single column on the cliff-top at Naksh-i-
Kustam, and a fragment which I shall mention at Persepolis ; and so are the
columns on the faQades of the royal tombs at the same place.
2 The drawings of Porter and others reproduce the inscription. The engraved
part of the monolith has since been broken off and has disappeared.
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 [524v] (1061/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00003e> [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