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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎547v] (1107/1814)

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. .

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112
PERSIA
it. In all probability the river overflow to which it owes its
existence was consumed, in earlier times, in irrigation.
In an earlier part of this chapter, while speaking of Dehbid,
I alluded to the nomad tribes of the province of Fars. It will be
my duty in a later chapter, dealing with the south-west
of Fars. provinces, where the Iliats, or migratory tribes of Persia
Kashkais are c p ie py concentrated, to write at length of their
features and organisation. Here, however, I must devote a few
paragraphs to those of their number who belong, almost exclusively,
to Fars and its administrative subdivision of Laristan. These fall
under two heads : Turkish Lurs and Arabs, the principal tribe of
the former being the Kashkai. I have called them Turks because
that is their origin, the tradition being that they are the
descendants of a race transplanted to Persia, by the Mongol
Hulaku Khan, from Kashgar; and I have called them Lurs be
cause they are considered to belong to the Lur family, and in
manners and customs differ very little from the Bakhtiaris and
Kuhgelus. The Kashkais cover, in their biennial migrations, an
immense tract of country; for, whilst in winter they are to be
found in their hishlaks, or winter quarters, in the garmsir, or warm
region of the coast fringe, known as Dashtistan (the Land of
Plains), and in Laristan, as the spring advances they move north
wards, leaving a few men behind to reap the scattered fields which
they have sown in the southern region, and to bury the gram in pits
against the ensuing winter, marching themselves, for the most part
at nights, and driving their immense flocks of sheep and goats
before them. So they come to their yeilaks, or summer-haunts m
the highlands, through which the postal route runs from Isfahan
to Shiraz. In the late autumn, as the cold begins to increase, they
again strike their black goats’-hair tents, and are off to the south
and the sun. 1
These tribes, like those which I shall afterwards describe, aie
under chieftains drawn from one of their own ruling families.
There are two governing offices, those of Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. and
Oigamsa w p ic p ma y p e respectively rendered as First and
Second in Command. The former is also officio Governor of
Firuzabad, the centre of the tribe, and of Ferashband. The
t The best authorities on the Kashkais are Keith Abbott {Journal of the
n r s' vol xxvii V De Bode, Travels, vol. i. p. 256 ; E. Stack, Six Months m
i. caps, v., Vi.; and F. C. Andreas. The name is erroneously derived
by Stack from the Turkish haehmah, to flee.

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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
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎547v] (1107/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00006c> [accessed 6 June 2026]

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