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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [541r] (1094/1814)
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
101
Other
manufac
tures
brisk about their Business, and will quaff you thus a whole week
together. 1
Worthy doctor ! His genial testamur would have raised a
tempost about his ears, and have provoked a fortnight’s controversy
in the c Times, had it been proffered in another country nearer
home at the latter end of the nineteenth century.
Among the other manufactures of Shiraz which came under my
notice, and for which the place is famous, are the enamelled bowls
and stems of kalians or water-pipes, repousse silver workj
of which very elegant frames and salt-cellars with
Oriental designs are fabricated for European customers ;
khatem kandi : a species of mosaic work in wood, brass, silver,
ivory, and stained bone, small fragments of which are fixed im a
bed of glue, and then planed smooth, the strips being fitted
together as the sides and lids of very pretty boxes ; seals, engraved
on cornelians and other stones; and jewellery. Of the natural
products I may mention the moss-roses and the bulbul or nightin
gale, which appears to be almost the precise counterpart of the
English bird.
Shiraz, like most Persian cities, has its epithet of personal
glorification, which is in this case Dar-el-Ilm, or Abode of Science,
a pretension for which I should have thought that its
Moscjugs ^
and col- notoriously convivial habits would have admittedly dis-
leges qualified it. Nevertheless, for a city of its present size,
it is well supplied with religious edifices, although these, alike by
their size and decay, tell the story of a deposed capital rather
than of a devout population. 2 The oldest mosque is the MusjidA-
Jama, built in 875 a.d. by Amru bin Leith, brother and successor
of the famous Yakub of that name. But little remains of the
original structure, the whole being in a shocking state of ruin from
earthquakes and the ravages of time; but in the centre of the main
court is a small, square, stone building, reported to be a copy of the
Kaaba at Mecca, with circular towers at the corners, presenting in
blue Kufic inscriptions round their summits the date 1450 a.d.
This curious edifice is known as the Khoda-Khaneh, or House of
1 Travels in Persia, p. 245. Compare Chardin, Voyages (edit. Langles), vol. viii.
pp. 436-7 ; Kaempfer, Amam. Exot., pp. 376-381, and Franklin, Observations on
Tour, vol. iii. p. 17.
2 The only good account that I know of the buildings of Shiraz at the present
day is contained in Mme. Dieulafoy’s book, accompanied by admirable illustrations.
La Perse, cap. xxiv.
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 [541r] (1094/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00005f> [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