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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [570v] (1155/1814)
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.
152
PERSIA
plain. These have now entirely disappeared. On the southern wall
are engraved four cuneiform inscriptions (two in Persian, one in Susian,
and one in Assyrian) which declare that it was the work of Darius,
who in the manner already familiar to us from the epitaph on his
sepulchre, invokes Ormuzd, enumerates his tributailes and subjects,
and places his palace under the protection of the deity. 1 The surface
of the platform, though littered with debris, and, in some parts, piled
high with mounds of rubbish and sand, is yet clearly divisible into
four levels, which are the result of natural configuration quite as much
as of a deliberate architectural design. The lowest and smallest of
these is a narrow platform on the south, 180 feet in breadth, and about
twenty feet in height above the plain. It appears never to have borne
any buildings. The second level is that upon which stand the Propylsea
of Xerxes, and, further behind, the Hall of a Hundred Columns,
and whose height is thirty-five to forty feet above the plain. Xext
comes the level, about ten feet higher, that supports the Hall of
Xerxes ; and finally, at an additional height of ten feet, is the ten ace
upon which were constructed the palaces of Darius and of Xerxes.
All these edifices, the platform itself, and the outer wall, were
built of the same material. Its fine texture, its superb and manifold
tints, and the high polish of which it admits, have induced
Material mos ^ wr iters to describe it as marble, while many have de
nominated it in different parts, according to its colour, syenite, basalt,
and porphyry. Le Bran, two centuries ago, and Xiebuhr m the last
century, were quite correct in pointing out this error. The material
of which every square foot of hewn or chiselled surface at Persepolis is
composed—and indeed (I believe) every relic, without exception, of
the Achcemenian period in Persia—is the calcareous limestone of its
native mountains. In this were hewn the royal rock-tombs ; upon this
was sculped the lordly proclamation of Bisitun ; of this was built the
Tomb of Cyrus. Short of marble, to which in grain and in surface-
tone it approximates, a finer material cannot anywhere be found,
while the variety of colours which it presents in its natural state, or
is capable of assuming under the influence of exposure, is surprising.
Sometimes it has been blanched almost snow-white, or of an amber
richness, elsewhere it is brown and sombre, frequently grey, and
occasionally, when polished, a rich blue-black. Nor can there be the
slightest doubt as to the spot from which the material of Persepolis
came. In the rock of the Kuh-i-Rahmet, in more than one place
both to the north and the south of the platform, are visible the
quarries from which the stonemasons hewed the stone. Big blocks
i Hawlinson, Journal of tU vol. x. pp. 289 et seq .; Spiegel, Die Alters.
Keilins. pp. 47-51; Menant, Les Achemenides, pp. 80-1.
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 [570v] (1155/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00009c> [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