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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [620v] (1257/1814)
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
232
Dashtistan, were formerly entirely Arabs, ruled by a sheikh of the
tribe of Matarish, who had emigrated in the seventeenth century from
People and Oman. In the middle of the last century, Sheikh Nasr
rulers (variously reported as being of this family, and of the
Nejd tribe of Abu Muheiri), a very remarkable man, raised him
self to a position of great authority and wealth, and retained his
independence throughout the reign of Kerim Khan. He was
master of Bahrein, as well as of Bushire, and much of the Dashtistan,
and maintained a large fleet, with which he traded with Muscat
and India, and an easily mobilised army of devoted Arabs; he
imported Nejd stallions from Arabia, and greatly improved the
Gulf breed of horses; and finally, upon his death, bequeathed to
his son a fortune of two millions sterling. The latter, bearing the
same name, received from his dying father a legacy of fidelity to
the cause of the youthful Lutf Ali Khan, whom he assisted to
place on the throne of Persia, although before long there was
disagreement between the pair. At the beginning of the present
century, Sheikh Abdur Rasul, grandson of the first, and son of
the second, Nasr, was Governor of Bushire ; but his sluggish
and unwarlike temperament suggested to the government of Path
Ali Shah, already beginning to assert its authority over the
outlying portions of the kingdom, the opportunity of interference.
The sheikh was seized, by the perfidious violation of an oath upon
the Koran, while the mission of Sir Harford Jones was in
Bushire in 1809, and was carried off to Shiraz, where his
execution was ordered. Having somehow saved his life, the
sheikh, in the alternate ups and downs of Asiatic fortune, found
himself again installed a few years later at Bushire, where, from
1816-30, he was continually engaged in conflict, either with
a brother named Mohammed on the spot, or with the Persian
Governor of Shiraz. A traveller in 1830, while Sir E. Stannus
was Resident at Bushire, represented the state of affairs as so
critical that guns were planted by the sheikh, and levelled at
the
Residency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India.
, which was barricaded with furniture and lumber,
and with a breastwork of water-casks and wine-chests in the
courtvard. In 1832, this troublesome chieftain, whose mischiev-
ousness had increased with his years, was murdered in the fort at
Borazjun. Another brother, Sheikh Husein, and a son, Sheikh
Rasul, continued the family tactics of internal dissension, varied
by revolt against the sovereign power, and spent their days either
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 [620v] (1257/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00003a> [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