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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [611r] (1236/1814)
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.
FROM SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE
213
held by the king, with his promoted successor. Behind the kneeling
figure stand two individuals, apparently Persian officers, the one with
a circular, the other with a conical head-piece. The cavalry in the
panels behind Shapur no doubt represent the royal bodyguard. They
wear the Persian dress, and the right arm of each is uplifted, and the
forefinger pointed, in the attitude familiar to many of the Sassanian
sculptures, and rightly interpreted as a mark of respect. The figures
in the five panels facing the king are mostly warriors, some of them
carrying arms ; others, objects the exact nature of which it is difficult
to determine. They have been regarded by the bulk of commentators
as soldiers of a vanquished army or armies ; 1 by some as attendants
of the royal court. The entire sculpture is chiselled in very high relief,
and the depth of the recess which it occupies is from one to five feet.
Here we will retrace our footsteps, having exhausted the bas-reliefs
on the right side of the gorge ; and, fording the river, at a short
Opposite distance below the citadel, will take up the inspection of
aqueduct tll0Se 011 t ^ ie opposite or north-west cliff. These are for the
most part far more difficult of access. They are situated at
heights varying from twenty to fifty feet above the river-bed j and
whatever may once have been the case, there is now no roadway or path
way below them. The place of such, if it ever existed, as it must have
done, is taken by an aqueduct of later and, probably, Arab origin,
which has been scooped and, in places, tunnelled along the face of the
natural rock with a complete disregard for the preservation of the
bas-reliefs, one of which it furrows right in twain—in order to convey
the waters of a small spring in the interior of the valley to a mill
which once existed lower down in the Kazerun plain. In order to
examine the sculptures one is obliged to clamber along this narrow
channel, which is in parts built up with walls from the river level, and
to go on to one’s hands and knees in order to crawl through the per
forations in the rock. The reason why the channel does not in places
now run along the level of the soil, but, as in the case of the bas-relief
already mentioned, has scooped an indentation more than half way up
its face, is that in the days when the aqueduct was made and used, the
soil was banked up to the level of the groove. Messrs. Stolze and
Andreas, when they came here in 1877, in order to take the photographs
for their large work, removed these accumulations by digging and
blasting, and laid all the sculptures entirely bare. Hence the appear
ance that is at first so puzzling to a stranger’s eye. Of the four panels
on this bank of the river, three are on the same level as the water-
conduit, the fourth and furthest is some twelve feet above it.
1 There seems to be insufficient reason for identifying them all, with Canon
Rawlinson, as soldiers of the Roman army. Certainly the two figures behind
Byriadis, are not, as he supposes, Romans.
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 [611r] (1236/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000025> [accessed 4 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