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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [587r] (1188/1814)
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.
PERSEP0L1S, AND OTHER RUINS
175
lemarks which have previously been made upon the purpose of Darius';
Palace will apply equally to that of his son. Here, in all probability,
we have the building in which Xerxes lived, and in which he conducted
business of state, and gave ceremonial banquets ; reserving for his
great levees the audience-hall with the porticoes and big columns.
Before leaving this palace, let us notice that between the terrace
that precedes it on the north, and the hindermost pillars of the Great
G rea t Hall of Xerxes, is a space of ground about a hundred yards
in length, which is now occupied only by a mound, rising in
parts to a very considerable height above the true level of the platform.
It has not unreasonably been conjectured that this great pile of
accumulated soil may cover the relics of some other and yet unknown
fabric, and Ker Porter sanguinely located here the banqueting hall
where Alexander feasted, and which Hell a sacrifice to the drunken
revelry of the Macedonian,' Thirteen years ago, Messrs. Stolze and
Andreas drove a trench through part of this great mound, and found
no more remunerative spoil than masons' rubbish and chips. Yet
I cannot but hope that a more thorough investigation might produce
ampler results, even though the trouvaille were limited to the discovery,
not of an unsuspected palace, but of what would be nearly as important,
Hz. authentic traces of tiles, bricks, or whatever method of mural de
coration was employed by the Achsemenian architects on the platform.
Personally, I shall not feel any sense of contentment that the limits of
possible discovery have been reached until, like the Acropolis at
Athens, the surface of the rock or true level of the platform has
everywhere been laid bare. Then only will archaeology have had its
final say.
On the lower or principal platform, at a distance of 180 yards
behind or to the east of the Palace of Xerxes, are the remains of a
South-east further building, which has a stunted appearance, owing to
the fact that it is buried in the soil up to half the height of
its niches and doorways. These, which are composed of a stone the
blackness of which resembles the material of the Palace of Darius,
enclose a space eighty-nine feet in length by sixty-one in breadth,
preceded by a portico fifty and a half feet by thirty and a half feet.
The former appears to have contained sixteen columns, in four rows
of four each ; the latter eight columns, in two rows of four each.
There are no traces of lateral chambers ; and the entire building
appears to have been either a reproduction or a prototype on a small
scale of the great Hall of a Hundred Columns, which we shall presently
notice. That it was a royal palace or hall is evident from the
sculptured images of the king, with the fly-chaser in the south door,
and the parasol in the north, and of the king fighting with the
symbolical monster on its hind legs in the east and west ; but no
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 [587r] (1188/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x0000bd> [accessed 7 July 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