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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [620r] (1256/1814)
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.
FKOM SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE
231
least with only such a history as an existence of 150 years can
supply. Originally a small fishing village, it was selected by
. Nadir Shah in the middle of the last century as his
southern port, and as the dockyard of the navy which he
aspired to create in the Gulf. A little later, after the collapse
of their business at Bunder Abbas, the East India Company
transferred their
factory
An East India Company trading post.
to Bushire, where they received firmans
conferring trading privileges upon them from Kerim Khan Zend.
Matters progressed very slowly at the outset, there being only
one English merchant in the place when Niebuhr was there in
1765. Gradually, however, as the mercantile marine of the Gulf
was developed, and caravans into the interior began to adopt
the route of the kotals, Bushire grew in size and importance, 1 and
at the beginning of the present century had about 6,000-8,000
inhabitants. Under the immense increase in recent years of traffic
both by land and sea, the place has swollen to larger dimensions,
and now contains a mixed population of 15,000 persons. The town
is situated at the northern extremity of a peninsula, eleven miles
long by four broad, which is identified with the Mesambria of
Arrian, where the fleet of Nearchus cast anchor, and found
plantations and gardens. This peninsula has at some period been
recovered from the sea, which only a century ago used sometimes
to flow across the narrow neck immediately south of the town,
converting the latter into an island. Since then the land has
steadily risen, and this phenomenon no longer occurs; but the
water from the interior or eastern bay occasionally overflows the low-
lying flats near the walls, and turns them into a swamp. The town
itself has a rather better elevation, being situated upon a ledge of
sandy conglomerate stone, which projects above the sea-level, and
gives the place from a distance a more imposing appearance than
is warranted by a closer inspection.
The people of Bushire, as of all the coast towns in the
Shehr is singular, not plural; and because Abu is Arabic, while Shehr is Persian.
General Schindler informs me that in the Karnamek of Ardeshir Babekan, the
first Sassanian monarch, is a passage which says that on his retreat to the coast
of the Gulf, pursued by the Parthian army, Ardeshir ‘ when he saw the sea
praised God, and there named a place Bokht-Artakhshir, and erected a fire-
temple ’ This may have been contracted into Bushir, on the analogy of Gavashir,
Bahmeshir, Reshire.
1 There is an interesting account of Bushire in 1775, in Travels in Asia, by
Abraham Parsons.
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 [620r] (1256/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000039> [accessed 6 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