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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [534v] (1081/1814)
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.
92
PERSIA
hundred villages, this total has now dwindled to fifty; while
so inadequate is the control of the water-supply, that the plain
often lies half under water, and is converted, into stagnant pools
and swamps. As I left Persepolis, after completing my study
of its ruins, I was obliged to strike back in a north-westerly
direction, in order to escape this network of watery trenches.
Passing the village of Kushk, I then kept straight forward in
a south-westerly line, towards the Pul-i-Khan, a very lofty
bridge, with two main arches of irregular size and shape, which
crosses the river Kur (the Araxes of the ancients) a little below
its confluence with the Polvar. 1 The conjoint stream formed
a deep, wide pool below the bridge, and there was more water
in it than in any river that I had yet seen in Persia. From
the fact that eight miles further down, this river is crossed by
a great dam, upon which stands a bridge of thirteen arches,
120 yards in length, the work of an enlightened ruler of the
Al-i-Buyah or Dilemi dynasty, known as the Asad-ed-Dowleh, in
about 970 a.D., its lower course has received the name of the
Bund-Amir 2 (lit^ke of the Amir), or Bendemeer of Moore,
whose rhapsodical description of its charms I shall allow myself,
almost alone among modern writers on Persia, the luxury of not
quoting.
From here the road continues towards the mountains that
fringe the plain of Mervdasht on the south-west side, and,
Approach entering a deep bay in these, proceeds for a distance of
to Shiraz some miles over an expanse that is occupied, in the
rainy season, by a marsh, across which the track is carried for over
1 Higher up the Kur, whose main source is the Chashmeh-i-Durdaneh, is known
successively as the Asupas and Kamfimz. Eight farsaMs above the Pul-i-Khan
it is dammed by the Bund-i-Nasiri, so called from the reigning Shah, who in 1SJ0
repaired a structure, originally erected by the Achajmenian kings, and frequently
restored since The Polvar, whose course I have followed, and which flows in
above the Pul-i-Khan, is the Medus of the ancients, and the Faruab or Puruab ot
Persian geographers. After the confluence the river is called the Kur. Two farsaMs
lower down is the celebrated dam of Asad-ed-Bowleh, from which the river de
rives its title in these lower reaches of Bund-Amir. Five more dams obstruct i s
course and divert its waters, before the remainder finally falls into the great salt
lake of Bakhtegan (called by the natives Bichegan) or Niriz ^de Notes on
the Kur River ’ by A. H. Schindler in Proceedings of the R. G. S., vol. xm. p. ML
(18 ® The dam was visited and described by J. P. Morier (1811), Second Jam
p. 73 ; Sir W. Ouseley (1811), Travels^GV. ii. p. 180-5 ; C. J. Rich (1821), Journey
to Persepolis, p. 261.
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 [534v] (1081/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000052> [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