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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [532r] (1076/1814)
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
87
Let me state both. (1) Pliny says that Pasargacbe was east of
Persepolis (Inde ad orientem Magi obtinent Passagardas castellum),
Hostile whereas Murghab is north-east. This, I think, is hyper-
aiguments criticism. (2) The same
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
, describing the naval cruise of
Nearchus along the shore of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, speaks of the f river
Sitiogagus, by which Pasargadie is reached by boat on the seventh day.’ 1
This of course can in no wise be reconciled with the Kur or the Polvar.
It is the Sitakus of Arrian (Indica, cap. 93), and the modern Kara
Aghach, one branch of which rises south of Darabjird, where, as I shall
presently show, it is probable that there was either another Pasargadse,
or a city of very similar name. (3) Ptolemy (who, however, did not
write till the second century a.d.) in giving the latitudes and longitudes
of Persepolis and Pasargadse, represents the latter as a good deal to the
south-east, and not to the north-east, of the former. One answer to
this might be that Ptolemy in his Persian tables made many egregious
mistakes, although, as I shall show, I think it quite possible that in this
case he was referring to another city of a similar name, further to the
south-east. 2 (4) It is argued that Alexander, in marching into Pars from
Carmania (Kerman), would probably have adopted the ordinary caravan
track from the south, in which case he would have reached Persepolis
before Murghab, instead of in the inverse order. But the very fact that
he only took a small detachment of his lightest troops on this expedition
seems to imply that he went by a less ordinary and, possibly, by a
desert route. (5) Finally, we come to the argument from the cuneiform
inscription of Bisitun, which is of more weighty calibre. There we
read of Pisiyauwada or Pisyachada, a name bearing a strong verbal
resemblance to Pasargadse. The first pseudo-Smerdis, Gomates, we
are told, rose here. Hither the second pseudo-Smerdis, Yeisdates, fled
after a defeat at Bakha. c From that place (i.e. Pisyachada) with an
army he came back, arraying battle before Artabardes. The mountains
named Parga, there they fought. 5 There, too, the pretender was taken
prisoner and put to death. In another paragraph it is mentioned that
he had sent his troops to Arachotia—i.e. Western Afghanistan. Upon
these details Professor Oppert grounds a minute scheme of identification,
Bakha, according to him, being the Pasarracha of Ptolemy, on the site
of the modern Fasa or Pasa; Parga being the modern Forg, and
Pisyachada, or Pasargadse, being the modern Darabjird, or rather a
ruined enclosure known as the Kaleh-i-Darab, four miles south-west
of that town. 3 Here, he says, was the royal city of Cyrus and the
1 Hist. Nat. vi. 25.
2 Geog. vi. 4. In the best manuscript moreover, the name is written, not
Pasargadte, but Pasarracha.
3 I may point out (accepting Sir H. Rawlinson’s translation of the inscription
as correct) that Professor Oppert has strained the text in what appears to be an
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 [532r] (1076/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00004d> [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