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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [560v] (1133/1814)
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.
13«
PERSIA
Porter and other modern travellers mention the local name as being-
the Harem of Jamshid. On the northern side, near the river, the
remains are encompassed by the ruins of a wall of irregular outline,
with the trace of semicircular bastions on one side, and of a ditch once
tilled from the Polvar. This wall is probably of much later date than
the original city, and may have been added in Mohammedan times.
Such are the sole surviving relics of what was no doubt the populous
and mercantile quarter of the city of Darius. Excavations in the
mounds and piles of debris might produce more satisfactory results.
To a person standing on the platform of Persepolis, and looking
over the plain of Mervdasht, the most conspicuous objects in the
Sell landscape are three insulated rocky bluffs, rising abruptly
Gumbedan a distance of from seven to eight miles to the north-west.
Their lower parts consist of steep slopes, above which a precipitous scarp
shoots into the air, terminating in a sharp and jagged summit. These hills
are known as Seh Gumbedan, or the Three Domes ; and their names
have been returned by Hamdallah in the fourteenth century as Istakhr,
Shekesteh, and Sang wan ; and in the present century by Fraser as
Istakhr, Shekusteh, and Shemgan ; by Binning as Istakhr, Shahrek,
and Kumfiruz ; and by Stack as Ghila and Ghilan. Holdeke, who is
our latest reference, says that the middlemost, which contained the
medkeval citadel of Istakhr and the tanks, has now lost its old name,
and is called Mian Kaleh, or Middle Fort. It has been ascended and
described by Morier, De Bode, and Flandin, the last-named of whom
called it Kalet-i-Sarb, or Fort of the Cypress. He gives a plan of the
three tanks or reservoirs before alluded to as dating from the tenth
century. 1 Advantage was taken in their construction of natural hollows
or rifts in the mountain; and they accordingly remind us of the
celebrated Tanks of Aden. Upon the same rock are remains of a
gateway, and of the walls and towers of the ancient castle ; similar
ruins being visible upon the adjacent rock of Shahrek. 2 Its summit
is 1,200 feet above the plain. I imagine that the entire space between
the mediaeval and Achmmenian Istakhr must, at one time or another,
have been more or less peopled by outskirts or suburbs, all bearing the
same name. A city of the populace, which, as a rule in the East,
consists of no more than mud and wattled huts, is very easily wiped
out of existence.
I now return to the cliff-wall of the Husein Kuh, and to the sculp
tured section of it, nearly 200 yards in length, that presents, above
the chiselled tablets of the Sassanian kings, the magnificent rock-
1 Flandin and Coste, vol. ii. pb 62.
3 Fergusson is, therefore, wrong when he says (p. 91) : ‘No trace of buildings, I
believe, exists upon them.’
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 [560v] (1133/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000086> [accessed 8 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