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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [597r] (1208/1814)
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.
PERSEPOLIS, AND OTHER RUINS
193
derive their idea of immense, and, as vve may think, unduly low halls
with crowded groves of pillars, supporting a flat roof, and with
branching columnar aisles stretching away in long perspective into the
gloom ? True, in Egypt the pillared hall preceded the sanctuary of the
deity, m Persia enshrined the majesty of the king ; but what the o 0 d
was in the Egyptian creed, and Pharaoh as his minister, the kin* was
by himself m the faith of Iran. In either case the hall serves
architecturally the same purpose, and I conceive, therefore, the later
to have been derived from the earlier model.
Critics have found some difficulty in agreeing as to the obligations,
if any, under which Persia laboured to the art of Greece . 1 That
Greece intercourse between the two nations, not only on the battle
field but in the relations of peace, was frequent and common
is certain. How many of the statued glories of Athens were carried
off to Asia we cannot tell; but that the Attic temples were
remorselessly plundered we know. After the conclusion of the war,
there was a constant flow of Greek exiles and artists to the
Achsemenian Court, attracted in either case by its luxury and wealth.
I have spoxen of Greek forms in the Persepolitan column ; alluding
thereby to the Ionian volutes in the composite capital, and to the
strings of ovals, and tori or fillets, upon the base. The elasticity and
freedom of the Hellenic genius may further be recognised in the
movements and the draperies of the human body, as depicted in the
bas-reliefs of Persepolis, which are less angular and conventional than
in any earlier Asiatic style. If a more minute correspondence cannot
with certainty be traced, it must be remembered, in the first place, that
the genius of Greek art was plastic and of Persian art structural ; and
secondly that, while the earlier Achmmenian sovereigns were rearing
their pillared halls and throne-rooms on the platform at Persepolis,
Hellenic art was still undeveloped and impeded by archaic traditions ;
and that the Persian form had been finally stereotyped before, upon
the sacred crag of Athens, the marble of Pentelikon leaped into life
beneath the inspired chisel of Phidias.
This, then, I conceive to have been, roughly speaking, the debt of
Persia to foreign peoples and styles. Nevertheless, while she borrowed
Residue of muc h, she also added something of her own, enough, beyond
ongmality a p question, to lift her art from the rank of a purely imita
tive or servile school. The Persepolitan platform, though in its origin
1 M. Dieulafoy, for instance, somewhat obscurely says : ‘ La part que la Grece
a prise ft Feducation du sculpteur persan n’est sensible qu’a un ceil tr&s exerce ;
elle ne se trahit que dans le caract&re du travail, dans I’imprevu de certaines
recherches, de certaines souplesses, que Ton ne s’attendait pas A, trouver en pareil
lieu. I recommend an excellent excursus on the influence of Greek upon Persian
art by M. Perrot, pp. 425-54.
VOL. II. 0
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 [597r] (1208/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000009> [accessed 5 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