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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [593v] (1201/1814)
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.
186
PERSIA
spirit of doubt. 1 The character and object of the platform and its
structures he does not, of course, any more than other scholars, dispute.
Stolze’s But he boldly denies that this was the royal castle of Persepolis
doubts which Alexander seized, and which, whether in a drunken
brawl or with a fixed purpose, he set on fire." Diodorus Siculus, who
wrote in the half-century immediately preceding the Christian era, and
who derived most of his material for the history of Alexander from
Clitarchus, is his mainstay. The Sicilian describes the citadel and
palaces of Persepolis (using the names a/cpa and fiacriXeia without dis
tinction), as surrounded by a triple wall, of which the outermost was
sixteen cubits or twenty-seven feet high, crowned with battlements,
the second, thirty-two cubits or fifty-four feet, and the third or inner
most, sixty cubits or one hundred and two feet high. He continues :—
The third enclosure in shape was four-sided, and the wall thereof was in height
sixty cubits, made of hard stone, well suited to last for ever. Each of the sides had
gates of brass, and by them palisades (the word is crravpovs, lit. crosses) of brass
of twenty cubits, the one set up for safety, the others to strike terror into the be
holders. And on the side of the citadel towards the east, at a distance of four
hundred feet, is a mountain called the Royal Mountain, in which were the
sepulchres of the kings. ... In this citadel were many lodgings, both of the king
and of his generals, of very costly equipment, and treasuries well contrived for
the guarding of money.
He further says of the royal rock-tombs, that the coffins could only
be elevated to them by means of machines. 3 From this description it
is at once evident (1) that the historian is either not describing the
pillared platform at all, but some other structure, or that he has hope
lessly blundered ; and (2) that he is describing, not the sepulchres of
Persepolis, but those at Naksh-i-Rustam. Stolze, accepting the
hypothesis most favourable to Diodorus, conjectures that the citadel
with triple concentric enclosure did exist ^ that it was situated in the
immediate neighbourhood, on the western side, of Naksh-i-Rustam,
and that there were the palaces which Alexander destroyed by fire. 4
He disposes of the layer of charred cedar on the floor of the Hall of
1 Verhand. d. Gesell.f. Erd. z. Eerlin, 1883.
2 The bulk of the historians, basing their narrative upon Clitarchus, favour
the former theory ; and Dry den, in the famous passage above quoted, has given
poetical form to the familiar story of Thais, the courtesan. Diodorus, however,
suggests a more deliberate motive, viz. revenge for the burning of the temples of
Athens by Xerxes. This is a far likelier hypothesis; and Noldeke, looking to the
impression produced upon an Oriental people by such a display of the power of
the conqueror, regards the act as ‘ a well-considered measure, calculated to work
on the Asiatic mind.’
3 Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. 215.
4 According to Diodorus, the destruction was of more than one palace—Ta%v
7ras o irepl ra fiaffiAeia tottos KarecpAe^dr].
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 [593v] (1201/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000002> [accessed 10 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