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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [590r] (1194/1814)
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.
PEKSEPOLIS, AND OTHER RUINS
179
liis loins are girt, and he solemnly grapples with and transfixes
the foe.
This great hall, which next to that of Karnak in Egypt was the
largest in the ancient world, was doubtless, as its sculptures indicate,
Design ^ ie ^ roiie " roon i or audience-hall of the Great King. Less
striking, though more spacious than the Hall of Xerxes, in
asmuch as it was lower in elevation, and in all probability worse
lighted , 1 it must have served an analogous purpose. Here, in the
manner depicted upon the doorways, one of the Achsemenian sove
reigns must have sat in state to receive the homage or the tribute of
his peop.e. With which of the dynasty are we to connect it ? Sir
H. Rawlinson has been induced by the superior preservation of the
sculptures to refer it to the latest reasonable period, viz., to the reign
of Artaxerxes III. From the same premise I should draw quite the
opposite conclusion. Looking to the facts, that under the reign of
Darius the national art appears to have touched its apogee of splen
dour, that there is no other hall on the platform which we are justified
in identifying with a throne-room such as he must undoubtedly have
used, and that both the ground plan and structure represent the
simplest and least complicated form of Persepolitan hall, I should be
inclined to argue that this was the building where the son of Hystaspes
sat in royal state j and that it was with the familiar ambition of the
Oriental to create some novel type, at once emulating and transcending
his predecessor, that Xerxes departed from the model of his father^
and raised the Great Hall with the porticoes on another part of the
terrace. Moreover, when the Hall of a Hundred Columns was built,
the decorative massing of sculpture on the fronts of stairways had
seemingly not been developed, and the scenes of royal pageantry which
Xerxes depicted on the stylobate of his stately platform are here con
centrated and disposed vertically on the jambs of the entrance door
ways. A further difference may be noted in the absence of any groove
or socket in the doorways, as in the palaces of Darius and Xerxes, to
contain the pivots on which the folding doors were hung. This lends
an additional support to the theory that we have here an audience-
chamber merely ; since the doorways can only have been closed or con
cealed by hangings, like those described in the book of Esther.
At a distance of 190 feet to the north of the portico are the
remains of what is generally admitted to have been a bull-flanked
1 The only apparent means by which light can have been admitted to the
interior was by the nine windows in the northern wall, the bays on the other side
being all filled and constituting niches. The limited and feeble radiance that
must have spread therefrom down the long, pillared aisles necessitates, in my
opinion, the theory of windows or open spaces left to admit light in the sides of
the timbered roof.
n 2
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 [590r] (1194/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x0000c3> [accessed 28 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