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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [563r] (1140/1814)
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.
PERSEPOLIS, AND OTHER RUINS 143
consequently ordains an architectural elaboration which is confined to
the interior of the sepulchre, and was intended never again to meet
the human eye the Zoroastrian canon blazons forth to all men the
personality and the splendour of the illustrious departed. If a direct
Egyptian prototype is to be sought, it will be found rather in the rock-
ombs that overlook the Nile from the cliffs of Beni Hasan, than in the
tunnelled vaults of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.
But, at this point, the question may naturally arise, How came
it that monarchs, professing the faith of Zoroaster, should have sanc-
The tioned and adopted a mode of sepulture so little in keeping
frZcanon V ^ well ; known ™to imposed by that creed upon the
m umation of the dead? To this interesting question let
me attempt to give an answer. In the first place we must bear in
mind that the Avesta, 1 as we know it, dates from no more remote
period than the reign of the first Sassanian monarch, Ardeshir
Babekan (a.d. 226-40) ; and that the strict application of the canon
against sepulture either by cremation or interment, 2 as a desecration
of the primal and semi-divine elements of nature, was only then
systematically enforced. In the time of Darius the Avestan doctrines
had not gained the absolute sway that they did in later days ; and
were probably confined, as regards strict observance, to the sacerdotal
caste of the Magi. In any case the monarch who had himself over
thrown the political conspiracy of that priesthood, felt himself bound by
no such rigid inhibition. Cremation, as Herodotus tells us, 3 was forbidden
as an insult to the divinity ; and the Persians were horrified when
Cambyses burned the body of the Egyptian Amasis. Exposure to
birds of prey upon dakhmas or platforms was common ; but the
skeleton so denuded was, in the case of the ordinary people, coated
with wax so as to prevent defilement, and was then interred. 4 What
this form of burial was to his subjects, the rock-sepulchre became to
the sovereign ; and hence it is that we find this seeming violation of
the creed of Ormuzd perpetrated under the very shadow and effigy of
his name.
Opposite the third and fourth royal tombs of Nahsh-i-Rustam, the
ground rises in the form of a slight and mainly artificial elevation ; and
1 Zend-Avesta, the popular title started a century ago by Anquetil Duperron,
is, strictly speaking, a misnomer. Avesta—i.e. Law or Revelation (like the cognate
word Veda, from the root vid, to know)—is the name of the original scriptures of
the creed of Zoroaster. Zend (from the root to know) signifies Interpretation,
or Commentary, and is the comparatively late body of religious exposition, written
in Pehlevi, and dating from the Sassanian epoch.
2 A corpse-burner might be killed by any passer-by. Burial of the dead was
an inexpiable crime. Even Seioces, the minister of Kobad, was put to death for
this offence (Procopius, Be Bell. Pers. i. 11).
3 Lib. iii. c. 16.
4 Ibid. lib. i. c. 140.
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 [563r] (1140/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00008d> [accessed 5 April 2025]
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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