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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [530r] (1072/1814)
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 ISFAHAN TO SHIRAZ
83
On the other hand, the opponents of the theory of identification
advance the following arguments, to which I will append such replies as
Points of appear to be both reasonable and adequate. (1) The Tomb
difference 0 f Cyrus was surrounded by gardens and streams and grass,
and was overshadowed with the foliage of trees, whereas there is now
no sign at Murghab of any of these. I really cannot think that this
argument is of the slightest value, looking to the prodigious change in
the face of a country that is effected in a single century, let alone
2,200 years. Upon this hypothesis, scarcely a single site in Persia
could now be identified with its forerunner in ancient days. There is
abundance of water in the valley of Murghab, for the river runs at no
distance ; and the little sepulchre and its surrounding colonnade may
well have stood in a copse of trees. Moreover, the modest height of the
existing building, over which a sylvan canopy might easily have been
formed, itself indirectly corroborates the assertion of Strabo. (2) M.
Dieulafoy says that a Greek would never have compared the edifice at
Murghab to a square tower. Here I have to complain of the mistrans
lation or misrepresentation of the originals, of which no critic has been
so fragrantly and frequently guilty as M. Dieulafoy. The answer is
very simple. None of the Greeks did so compare it. Strabo called it a
tower (irvpyos) a term frequently applied in later Greek to isolated
buildings—but never said that it was square. Arrian added that it
rested upon a squared base, which I have shown to be true. 1 (3) M.
Dieulafoy argues that the tomb chamber at Murghab is too small to
have contained the objects before enumerated, to which he gratuitously
adds, without the slightest excuse, ‘une auge doree prop re a se laver ou
a se baigner. This is largely a matter of opinion. I gather myself
from the passages before cited that the contents of the mausoleum of
Cyrus were a decorated couch upon which the coffin was laid, and a table
covered with cups, ornaments, and arms. For these there appears to
me to have been ample room. (4) M. Dieulafoy, perpetrating a still
further enormity, says that in the tomb at Murghab there is no trace
of an inner staircase leading down to the chamber of the guards.
Neither, I reply, was there in the Tomb of Cyrus. The staircase is an
unpardonable figment of M. Dieulafoy’s own imagination. 3 (5) There
1 His words are : avrbv 5e rdcpov rcL /nev Karoo Aidov rerpairebov is rerpdyoovoi/
axnp-OL TreTroirjcrOai.
2 This is a second mistranslation. M. Dieulafoy translates nveXos in its
primary meaning of a bathing-tub, ignoring that Arrian is applying it, in its
secondary meaning of a coffin, to the receptacle that held the body of Cyrus.
This is clear enough from Arrian’s own words : y irveXos rj rb crw/xa rev Kvpov
e^oi/a'a.
3 To make this point clear, let me cite the words both of M. Dieulafoy and of
Arrian. The former says (L’Art Antique de la Perse, p. 26) : ‘ On communiquait
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 [530r] (1072/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000049> [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