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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [602r] (1218/1814)
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.
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tpz
FROM SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE 199
Leaving my kind Hosts at the Bagh-i-Sheikh, on the western
outskirts of Shiraz, where are the residence and club-room of the
Khan-i- Indo-European Telegraph officials, I started at 6 a.m. on
Zmiaii a cloudy morning upon my forward journey. The road
makes foi the westeily corner of the Shiraz valley, passing two
small villages on the way. At the distance of eight miles we cross
a slender stream by a bridge, where are a
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
and a
guard-house, called Chenar-i-Bahdar, for the taking of tolls.
Here we reach the foot hills and begin the ascent. Soon a turn in
the track conceals from us the retrospect of the Shiraz plain; and,
eie it is gone we turn lound for a parting glance at the distant
cypress spires, the scattered gardens, and the bulbous cupolas of
the mosques. I he road continues steadily to ascend, and after five
hours of unbroken marching, conducts into an upland valley,
watered by a river with wide stony bed, at present occupied by a
streamlet of attenuated volume. This is the Kara Aghach (Black
Tree), which in a circuitous course of at least 300 miles is known
by several names, the principal of which are Kawar and Mand, and
which eventually falls into the sea by a creek known as the Khor
Ziarat. It is the Sitiogagus, or Sitakus of the ancients, already
mentioned in my discussion of the Pasargadge question . 1 The road
follows its left bank for two miles, through a hilly country clothed
with thorn bushes and a good deal of stunted scrub. At length in
the distance is descried the white quadrilateral of the cavaranserai
of Khan-i-Zinian , 2 built nearly thirty years ago by the Mushir-el-
Mulk, a very wealthy individual, who was Vizier or Minister to
the then Governor of Ears, and who signalised his administration
by the repair or erection of public works along the Shiraz-Bushire
route, which must have earned him the gratitude of thousands of
wayfarers, even though the funds devoted to the outlay had
probably been wrung from a distressed peasantry. In the old
C. J. Eich (1821), R. B. Binning (1850), J. Ussher (1861), A. H. Mounsey (1866),
A. Arnold (1875), (Sir) C. MacGregor (1875), E. Stack (1881). To these I may
also add, for this section, J. de Thevenot (1665), Voyages, bk. 3, part ii.; Gen. W.
Monteith (1810), Journal of the It. G. S., vol. xxvii. pp. 114-8 ; and (Sir) O.
St. John, ibid. vol. xxxviii. p. 411.
1 Vide notes on this river by Col. E. C. Ross in the Proceedings of the R. G. S.
(New Series), vol. v. pp. 712-7, 1883.
2 Ouseley says that the name is Kan-i-Zinian, or Mine of zinian, a grain like
fennel-seed in appearance, and like caraway-seed in taste, which is produced in
the neighbourhood.
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 [602r] (1218/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000013> [accessed 13 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