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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [628v] (1273/1814)
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
246
inasmuch as it includes Persian Beluchistan, which is adminis
tered by a deputy of the Governor-General. The lattei is usually
a prince of the blood royal, and at the time of my visit was the
Nasr-ed-Dowleh, a cousin of the Shah. His province contains as
varied a population as can be found anywhere within the same
limits in Persia ; Iranians, Turkis, Kurds, Beluchis, and Rinds
being included in the total.
Yezd and Kerman both stand, as has been seen, on the
outskirts of a desert, and north of both, for league upon league,
The oreat extends the appalling waste that has here stamped upon
deserts Persia the imprint of an eternal desolation. From the
haunts of busy life and commerce I turn, therefore, to the
contemplation of a Sahara as funereal and more unique than any
that Tartary or Africa can display. In existing works upon
Persia there will be found hesitating, and often conflicting,
accounts about both the extent, the ramifications, and the limits of
the main Persian desert or deserts, arising from the scant and
often untrustworthy information upon - which those descriptions
have been based. The more reliable intelligence that has lately
been procured enables us to formulate a more accurate conception.
There are, practically speaking, two great deserts, covering a
combined length, from north-west to south-east, of over 500 miles r
but separated from each other, between the thirty-second and
thirty-fourth parallels of latitude, by a belt of hilly country,
along which runs one of the main caravan tracks from the centre
to the north-east. Of these deserts, the more northerly, extending
from 33° to 36° north latitude, and from 52° to 57° east longitude,
is that generally known as the Great Salt Desert, or Dasht-i-Kavir.
The second or southerly, extending from 29° to 32° north latitude,
and from 57° to 60° east longitude, is that described on the maps
as the Dasht-i-Lut. Both are salt, in so far as nemeksar, or saline
swamp, is found in the depressions of each, which average about
1,000 feet above the sea ; but the far greater proportion of kavir in
the northern desert and the almost complete absence of vegetation
have procured for it the unenviable monopoly of the name.
By some the name Dasht-i-Kavir has been simply translated
Great Desert, kavir being presumed to be a local modification of
the Arabic kabir, great. 1 Such a derivation, however, altogether
1 Malcolm and Morier both spoke of it as the Daria-i-Kabir, or Great Sea, but
they must have been mistaken.
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 [628v] (1273/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00004a> [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