![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎629v] (1275/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1291.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎629v] (1275/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [629v] (1275/1814)
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.
248
PERSIA
which, could hardly have been localised upon dry land. Guides
and superstitious villagers, living near the various kavirs : tell
marvellous tales of the circumstances under which they ceased to
be seas and were dried up ; but these are interesting only to
students of folklore, and need not be here repeated.
In different parts, the havir presents a different aspect,
according to the nature of the soil and the amount of salt water
that refuses to be drained. Sometimes it is quite dry
kinds of and soft, with a thin glazed crust on the top, which
crackles beneath the horse’s hoof, and with powdery soil
beneath. Sometimes it presents an expanse of hard baked clay.
Again it will take the form of mobile hillocks and dangerous
quicksands. When the water is lying upon the surface, particu
larly in winter, it will in one place resemble a great lake, in
another it will be a slimy swamp; while after the evaporation of
the early summer suns the saline incrustation on the dried up
patches will glitter in the distance like sheets of ice. 1
Of travellers who have crossed or skirted the Great Kavir
there are few. Marco Polo has been said to have traversed a portion
Travellers of it on his supposed route from Tabbas to Damghan about
Great 1272 ; although it is more probable that he marched
Kavir further to the east, and crossed the northern portion of
the Dasht-i-Lut. 2 Dr. Buhse, a Russian, crossed a portion of it
on a journey from Yezd to Damghan in 1849, and was said by
Sir 0. St. John to have been the sole European who had done so: 5
Sir F. Goldsmid and the Seistan Boundary Commission were near
to its eastern fringe in 1872. Sir C. MacGregor, on his march
from Yezd to Tabbas, via Khur, in 1875, was upon its southern
border. Finally, in 1887 and 1888, two young Indian officers,
Lieutenant B. F. Galindo and Lieutenant H. B. Vaughan, travel-
ling, the former from Khur to Damghan, the latter from Anarek
to Semnan, alighted at intervening points upon the true Dasht-i-
1 Vide the description given by Colonel C. E. Stewart, Proceedings of the
P.G.8. (new series), vol. iii. (1881), p. 518.
2 Yule’s Marco Polo, vol. i. p. 131. The Tunogan of the text, which was
originally mistaken for Damghan, is correctly explained by Yule as Tun-o- (i.e.
and) Kain.
3 ‘ Notice sur trois plantes medicinales et sur le grand desert sale de la Perse,
par 1. A. Buhse. Extrait du Bulletin de la Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Moscou,
1850, No. 4. Vide also a notice by Dr. C. Greninck in his ‘ Geographical De-
sciiption of N. Persia,’published in the Trans, of the Mineralogical Soc. of St.
Petersburg in 1852.
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
Use and share this item
- Share this item
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [629v] (1275/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00004c> [accessed 4 June 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00004c
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00004c">Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎629v] (1275/1814)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00004c"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1291.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
Copyright: How to use this content
- 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