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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [538v] (1089/1814)
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.
96
PERSIA
although I cannot say that the evidences of antiquity which he
cites would stand the test of the modern scientific school.
Here art magick was first hatched ; here Nimrod for some time
lived • here Cyrus, the most excellent of Heathen Princes, was born ;
and here (all but his head, which was sent to Pisigard) mtombed.
Here the Great Macedonian glutted his avarice and Bacchism. Here
the first Sibylla sung our Saviour’s incarnation. Hence the Magi are
thought to have set out towards Bethlehem, and here a series of 200
Kings have swayed their scepters.
However, no other record that I am aware of, beyond
those before mentioned, exists of this ancient Shiraz. . The
later city was much improved and beautified by the Dilemi
rulers, of whom the Samsam-ed-Dowleh, son of the famous
Asad-ed-Dowleh, was the first to surround it with a wall,
twelve miles in circuit, while the channel of Ruknabad had
already been excavated and named by the Rukn-ed-Dowleh,
father of the latter prince. The various dynasties of Atabegs,
whom I have previously described, and who governed Fars, with
Shiraz as their capital, still further adorned the city. Towers
were added to the wall by Sherif-ed-Din Mahmud Shah. Ibn
Batutah, in about 1330, said that its most celebrated mosque was
that of Ahmed ibn Musa, a brother of Imam Reza, in which also
was the tomb of Abu Abdullah, who wandered about Ceylon with
a sanctity so well established that it was recognised even by the
elephants. The mercy of Jenghiz Khan, and the vengeance of
Timur have already been recorded. Nevertheless, the city con
tinued to grow in size and importance as a memory of which,
in later days, the vainglorious saying arose, ‘When Shiraz was
Shiraz, Cairo was one of its suburbs’—until the Venetian Josafa
Barbaro in 1474, represented it as twenty miles in circumference,
including the outskirts, while his countryman, Angiolello, said
that it contained 200,000 inhabitants, and was larger and more
Nasr Mme. Dieulafoy in 1881 reported that the stones had been npset by a
recent governor digging underneath them for the treasure which Persians invan-
ablv connect with inscriptions that they cannot read. Tide also Stolze, vol u.
nl 96 and Perrot and Chipiez, Hidoire de VArt, vol. v. p. 754. The Sassaman
sculptures are situated a little further on, nearer the Maharlu lake, and consist ot
three tablets, sculped in the rock above a pool. They were described by Chardin,
Thevenot Kaempfer, Mandelslo, Le Bran, etc., under the title Kadamgah, but are
called by’Binning Naksh-i-Burmedillek, i.e. Barm-i-dilek from the name of the
pool. Vide Flandin, ibid. pi. 56, and Stolze, ibid. pi. 145.
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 [538v] (1089/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00005a> [accessed 2 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