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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [596v] (1207/1814)
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
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192 PERSIA
Nowhere is the translation of history into art and architecture
more manifest, and nowhere was it ever more rapidly effected, than in
the case of Egypt and Persia. Cyrus cannot have been
Egypt long dead, when he is already represented with the symbolical
crown of an Egyptian divinity upon his brow. There is even reason to
believe, as I have argued, that his body may have been embalmed. We
learn from Diodorus that Cambyses carried away with him Egyptian
workmen from his Nile expedition. Very early must these artificers
have been set to work ; for already, in the reign of his successor, we
find another and a novel form of royal sepulture coming into vogue,
viz. the hewing of tombs in inaccessible places in the face of the
rock. I am strongly of opinion myself that Darius derived this idea,
foreign to the habits of his country, alien to the precepts of his
religion, from the spectacle of the rock-tombs in the valley of the Nile.
In both cases the hermetic concealment of the royal corpse, and the
sculptured blazoning of his title and prowess, are the objects of the
architect; although the differing religions of the two countries
prescribed, in the one case secrecy, in the other publicity, for the
epigraphic display. An equally obvious loan from Egypt is the fluted
moulding of the elegant projecting cornices above the Persepolitan
niches and windows and doors. Above all I venture to express the
opinion that the Achamienian column, though possibly based upon a
Median prototype , 1 though undoubtedly adorned with Greek attributes
and though crowned with an original capital, was yet Egyptian before
it was either Greek, Median, or indigenous, and that it adds one more
Persian debt to the artistic storehouse of the valley of the Nile . 2 I
attach considerable weight to the fact that, in spite of Media and
Mazanderan, the use of stone columns on a large scale, which was
unknown in Assyria and Chaldsea, was equally unknown in Persia
until the reign of Darius, i.e. until after the Egyptian campaign of
Cambyses. From what other quarter did the architects of Persepolis
1 The Median columns—e.g., those in the famous palace at Ecbatana, ascribed
by Herodotus to Deioces—were of wood, adorned with plates of metaL But even
so they were, I believe, Chaldman in origin, precisely the same metal-plated
columns having been found in the sculptures of the Chaldman tells. I observe
that most writers (e.g., Rawlinson and Dieulafoy) believe that the Persians
derived the original use of the pillar in palatial architecture from the wooden
columns that supported the humble tenements of Mazanderan and Gilan. I see
no reason for accepting this theory. Those provinces and their peoples have
always existed, and still exist, in almost entire isolation from Persia proper; and
I doubt if they have ever influenced in the slightest degree the Persians south
of the Elburz.
2 I cannot claim the support of Canon Bawlinson, who says : ‘ It is the glory
of the Persians in art to have invented this style; it is certainly not from Assyria
nor from Egypt.’
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 [596v] (1207/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000008> [accessed 15 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