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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [559v] (1131/1814)
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.
134
PERSIA
of whose priests, named Sassan, the father cf Babek or Papak,
was the grandfather of that Artaxerxes or Ardeshir who in 226 a.d.
overthrew the Parthian yoke, and founded the dynasty that still bears
his grandsire’s name. In the revival of religion and of national spirit
that followed, Istakhr became again the ceremonial capital of the
empire ; and although Ardeshir moved his own residence to Gur or
Jur. and his successors theirs to Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, and Shapur,
and Dastagird, yet at Istakhr remained the treasury and fire-altar of
the royal house, and here the heads of conquered kings were hung up.
Its population is said to have been seriously diminished by Shapur II.,
who transported twelve thousands families (doubtless an exaggeration) to
Nisibis. When the Arabs invaded Persia in 639 a.d., Istakhr was one
of the places that at first successfully resisted the assaults of Omar.
Five years later it yielded, but its population having again risen in
revolt in 648 and slain the Arab governor, it was forcibly reduced. In
the same century its citadel, on the summit of one of the curious
isolated rocks that have been mentioned, was built by the Khalif
Moaviyah. In the tenth century it is alluded to by three Aiab
geographers : by JMasudi, who saw there a book containing the
portraits and history of all the Sassanian kings ; by one of its own
natives, Abu Ishak el-Istakhri, who described it as a city of middle
size, with a strong citadel, about a mile in extent , and by IMukadessi,
who specially mentioned its mosque. At the close of the same century
it is said to have been destroyed in consequence of frequent rebellions
under the Samsam-ed-Dowleh, of the Al-i-Buyah dynasty ; but it must
have experienced a complete revival, if any credence is to be attached
to the testimony of Hamdallah, who in the fourteenth century returned
its dimensions as fourteen farsakhs by ten, the platform of Persepolis
included, embracing, no doubt, in this generous estimate the whole of
the more or less peopled plain from the Achsemenian city on the
Polvar, to the mediaeval citadel of Istakhr on the pointed hill. The
latter was made a state-prison by the Atabegs of Pars, and was so
used as late as 1576 a.d. 1 In 1621 it was found by P. della Valle m
ruins. Of other remains than those of the platform and tombs of
Persepolis, and the sepulchres of Naksh-i-Rustam, the seventeenth and
eighteenth-century travellers do not say much, and it has been reserved
for the explorers of more modern times to bring to light such relics as
still exist of the city, whatever its name may have been, that must
have sheltered the vast population ever buzzing round the courts of
of Persia somewhat similar to the Phoenician Astarte, the Babylonian Mylitta,
the Arabian Alitta, and the Hellenic Aphrodite. According to Plutarch, statues
t 0 her were put up in all the great cities of the empire. She is supposed to have
been of Armenian or Cappadocian origin. The popular translation of her name
into Artemis, or Diana, appears to me to be incorrect. 1 Sheref Nameh.
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 [559v] (1131/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000084> [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