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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [625r] (1266/1814)
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.
)
THE EASTERN AND SOUTH-EASTERN PROVINCES 239
to Fars. In the Achaemenian and Sassanian days I have found in
various writers supposed allusions to Yezd, which a closer examina
tion has proved to relate to Istakhr. With the Arab invasion
ensued that persecution of the Zoroastrian faith which exting'uished
the fire altars of Media and Hyrcania, and drove its acolytes to
the more secure retreat of Yezd and Kerman. Here they have
ever since lingered, maltreated but undismayed 5 and from this
centre was directed in later times that happy migration which has
transformed the down-trodden Guebre of Iran into the prosperous
Farsi of Bombay. For more than two centuries the Atabegs of
Yezd maintained an independent rule, comparable to that of the
Atabegs of Luristan in the west, until at the end of the thirteenth
century they were extinguished by the Mongol Ghazan Khan.
Marco Polo passed through ‘ the good and noble city of Yasdi ’
in 1272 ; Friar Odoricus was at lest, as he calls it, in 1325, and
the Venetian Josafa Barbaro in 1474. 1 Tavernier stayed here
three days in the middle of the seventeenth century, and was-
much struck with the good fruits, while of the ladies of Yezd
he decisively remarked that ‘ certainly they are the handsomest
women in Persia.’ He was among the first to quote the now
hackneyed native proverb, that ‘ to live happily a man must have
a wife of Yezd, must eat the bread of Yezdikhast, and drink the
wine of Shiraz.’ To Englishmen, however, Yezd was but little
known till the present century. Christie, having left Pottinger in
Beluchistan, passed through the town in 1810 on his return from
Herat ; 2 while a succession of writers, whose works I have already
named in a footnote, have in later years co-operated to remove the
prevailing ignorance.
Yezd is situate, as are most Persian cities of any size, on a flat
sandy plain, bounded by mountain ranges both on the north and
Size and south, the latter especially presenting a bold and rugged
appearance ou tli ne . All around the city, which evidently once covered
a much larger surface, lie acres encumbered with ruin, whilst on the
east the ever encroaching sands of the desert are blown right up
against the walls. The new arrival finds something imposing in
the great extent of buildings, in the fortified enceinte of the
citadel rising from the interior of the town, in the numerous wind-
1 He described it as a great silk mart, and as having a walled circumference;
of five miles. Marco Polo had also specified the silk manufacture.
2 Appendix to (Sir) H. Pottinger’s Travels in Beloochistan.
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 [625r] (1266/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000043> [accessed 24 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