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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [614v] (1243/1814)
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.
PERSIA
218
dress, and swords resembling the king’s), following the war-horse of
the monarch, which is saddled, but riderless. On the opposite or right-
hand side of the tablet, the upper row shows a wounded prisoner, and
another captive, with his hands tied behind his back, being led along
by Persian attendants ; while in the lower row the foremost figure
holds two decapitated heads in his hands, and is followed by a number
of prisoners and attendants, among whom is seen a child, in suppliant
attitude, probably the son of the executed leader, and a boy riding a
diminutive elephant. Canon Rawlinson, reasoning from the decadent
stvle of art, and from the fact that the only monarch on the Sassanian
coins who faces the spectator, and leans both hands on a straight
sword, is Chosroes Nushirwan, has no hesitation in attributing the
bas-relief to the latter sovereign. He may be right, though I can see
no ground whatsoever for entitling the sculptui e, as he does, Chosroes I.
receiving tribute from the Romans,’ the figures of the captives neither
having the features nor the dress of Romans, and every indication
tending to show that the bas-relief commemorates some victory over
an Eastern tribe or people, whose chief was slain.
Such are the sculptured tablets of Shapur. It will be seen that
they share both the merits and the faults of the bas-reliefs of Raksh-
. rt^tic i-Rustam. There is a certain lumbering heaviness of style, and
value a lack of spirituality or idealism. On the other hand, as con
temporary likenesses, and as representations of scenes requiring a
certain stateliness and rigidity of form, they are both interesting and
admirable. There are not at Shapur any of those spirited equestrian
combats which lend such variety and distinction to the remains at
ISTaksh-i-Rustam and Eiruzabad ; but the ceremonial tablets are the
most grandiose existing record of the earlier Sassanian kings. Above
all, it must be remembered that, coming directly after the Parthian or
Arsacid dynasty, when art had been crushed and had disappeared, these
sculptures testify to a renascence of native ability which is both
creditable and surprising.
There remain to be visited and described the great cave and the
image of Shapur I., the sole ancient statue (with the exception of the
The cave mu tilated torso, if it still exists, at Tak-i-Bostan) that survives
and statue in the whole of Persia. Several travellers have failed to find
of Shapur right cave, the Iliats of the neighbourhood being some
times absent, and not always truthful. It is situated high up in the
face of the left-hand or north-west cliff of the inner valley of Shapur,
a sheer scarp of rock, 700 feet high, towering above it. The ascent is
extremely long, rough, and fatiguing ; and the climber will hardly
arrive at the mouth within three-quarters of an hour of leaving the
valley bottom. In front of the cavern is a great perpendicular mass
of rock, over which it is almost impossible to scramble without assist-
i
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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 [614v] (1243/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00002c> [accessed 12 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