![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎595v] (1205/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1219.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎595v] (1205/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [595v] (1205/1814)
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.
190
PERSIA
revulsion of their fall. What then was the historical environment of
Persia during this period, and with what foreign peoples and styles
was she brought into direct contact ? The answer is simple and
suggestive. The campaigns of Cyrus left the new-born dominion the
heir of the glories of Nineveh and Babylon, and planted the conqueror
upon those illustrious thrones. For centuries they had supported a
long line of sovereigns, of exceeding magnificence and power, the
stately splendour of whose courts was the talk of the ancient world,
and is equally stamped upon the pages of Herodotus, on the records of
Holy Writ, and on the exhumed relics of their glory. Succeeding
victories threw open to the Persians the stored wealth and the highly
developed arts of Asia Minor, and brought them into relations with
the Hellenic colonies on the maritime fringe. Cambyses, still further
widening the horizon of ambition, found and absorbed in Egypt the
most ancient of civilisations, the most elaborate and systematised of
arts. Finally, under Darius and Xerxes, war was waged between the
invading armaments of the Great King, and those European republics,
already the cradle of freedom, and soon to become the nursery of the
purest and freest art that the world had seen. The East was repelled
by the West; but in its retreat it carried off much plunder, and by its
wealth continued to command the expanding talents of the rising
nationality. Chaldsea, Assyria, Lycia, Ionia, Egypt, Greece—this was
the historical sequence of conflict; and this too will be found to mark
the order of artistic influence and progression.
The nearest and the most akin of civilisations naturally exercised
the most powerful control. To no one who has studied Chaldseo-
Influence Assyrian art, as unearthed from the earlier Mesopotamian
of Assyria ie n s or mounds, or who is familiar with the spoils of Nimrud,
Khorsabad, and Kouyunjik, will the bulk of the Achsemenian forms
present any novelty. Let me enumerate in the order of their occur
rence on the platform at Persepolis, the indubitable legacies of the
art of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar. The artificially built-up
terrace, or mound, stone-faced (the Assyrian platforms were usually
brick-faced, but there was a stone-casing to that of the palace of
Sargon), surmounted by a battlement, and ascended by great flights of
steps (again in Assyria, as a rule, of brick, but sometimes also of stone),
was the familiar substructure of the royal palaces on the Tigris. The
winged man-faced bulls of the Propylsea are almost a facsimile of the
monstrous gate-keepers of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad. There is the
same pose, the same attitude, the same lofty tiara and curled hair, the
% same backward sweep of the feathered wings. The Persepolitan types
mark, however, a later age, and a perceptible artistic refinement. There
is less grotesque exaggeration in their form ; the fifth leg, as before
noticed, has disappeared ; the muscular development of limb is kept
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
Use and share this item
- Share this item
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [595v] (1205/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000006> [accessed 4 June 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000006
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000006">Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎595v] (1205/1814)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000006"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1219.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
Copyright: How to use this content
- 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