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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [551v] (1115/1814)
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.
mmm
120
PERSIA
ago that the lower of the two panels was laid bare by Messrs.
Flandin and Coste, having previously been concealed behind the
accumulations of soil. It is even now buried up to the flanks of the
horses. 1 Two mounted figures are depicted therein, charging each other
at full gallop with lances in rest. The cavalier on the left hand is
presumably the king ; he on the right wears a helmet with a knob or
some sort of
projection
Any method by which the earth’s curved surface may be transposed (or projected) on to a flat surface.
on the top. The upper panel represents a
similar combat, but at a more advanced stage. 2 Here the horse of the
figure on the right is thrown upon its haunches, and its rider is driven
back in his saddle, while his lance is tilted up in the air by the im
petuous onset of the charging king. The latter wears a peculiar helmet,
consisting of two wings on either side of the Sassanian globe (the
headdress of Yarahran IV.), carries a great quiver at his belt, and
wears a sort of tuft on either shoulder, a similar ornament decorating
the head of his charger. 3 Behind him stands an attendant or
standard-bearer, carrying a peculiar standard, consisting of a ring at
the end of a staff* and of a cross bar below it, from which depend
tassels. The king’s horse further tramples under foot a prostrate
figure. Both on the bodies of the cavaliers in these bas-reliefs, and on
their steeds, are traces of coats of mail ; and the combined panels are
invaluable as documents concerning the military equipment of the
period. The lower of the two, owing to its long concealment, is by far
the better preserved, the upper tablet having been shockingly defaced.
The latter is 24 feet long, by 12 feet high.
Between the second and third royal sepulchres occurs the fourth
bas-relief, which is the first (hitherto mentioned) of the series at
Fourth Naksh-i-Rustam, Shapur, and Darabjird devoted to the
tablet: commemoration of the crowning exploit of the Perso-
and PU1 Roman campaigns of Shapur I., viz. the capture of the aged
Valerian Roman Emperor Valerian at Edessa in 260 a.d. The
humiliation of a Latin Caesar, whether followed or not by the
indignities described and perhaps invented by later historians, 4 was a
1 Flandin and Coste, vol. iv. pi. 184 ; Stolze, vol. ii. pi. 121.
2 Vide, in addition to the above, Texier, vol. ii. pi. 132.
3 Ker Porter, who identifies the two figures with Varahran V. and a Tartar
khan whom he killed in combat near Rhey, fancifully thinks that this ornament
was a bladder filled with stones, in order to make a noise.
4 Contemporary writers speak only of the emperor having been kept in cap
tivity till his death at an advanced old age. But in the next century Lactantius,
followed by other historians, set on foot the story that he was compelled to act as
a footstool to Shapur when the latter mounted on horseback, that he was con
stantly exposed, fettered, to the multitude, and that after his death his skin was
stuffed, and hung up in a frequented temple. The sculptures do not corroborate
these indignities, which may have owed their origin, as Gibbon suggests, to the
malice of the defeated nationality, although there was little in Persian character
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 [551v] (1115/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000074> [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