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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [630v] (1277/1814)
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.
In the past year (1891), yet another section of the Great Kavir,
and itself a new phenomenon, has been for the first time brought
to light by the same officer, travelling in company with Mr. C. E.
Biddulph. This is no less than a great expanse of solid rock salt,
the deposit for countless centuries of numerous salt streams, called
by the natives Daria-i-Nemek, or Sea of Salt. It has apparently
been traversed for long years by native caravans, crossing from the
Meshed-Teheran road to Kashan, from which its southern border is
distant ]ess than 40 miles to the north-east; but during all this
period no hint of its existence has reached European ears. The
two English travellers suddenly came upon it, having climbed a
crest of the Siah Kuh, a prominent ridge that rises from the heart
of the desert. This is what they saw :—
At our feet lay what looked like a frozen sea, but was in reality a
deposit of salt, which entirely filled the hollow in the plains towards
the south, and stretched away as far as the eye could reach on either
side, glittering in the sun like a sheet of glass.
Descending to the brink they marched across it till they came
to the actual sheet of salt.
This at the edge was soft and sloppy like half-melted ice ; but, as
we proceeded, it gained in consistency till at a distance of 3 or 4 miles
it resembled nothing more than very solid ice, strong enough to bear
any weight.
The travellers tried to ascertain its depth ; but it was so hard
that with iron tent-pegs they could only detach a few chips. The
natives said it was several feet thick. Crossing this astonishing
expanse by moonlight, in order to escape the blinding glare of the
sun, they estimated its breadth as 25 miles, and its length as even
greater. This sea of solid rock-salt is probably without a rival in
the world. 1
Such, then, is the superficial aspect of the Dasht-i-Kavir.
Traversed only with difficulty by routes lying higher than the
general ]evel, it may be said within the vast area of its limits
absolutely to cut off northern from southern Persia, and to inter
pose a barrier between the two as grim and insurmountable as, at
the opposite extreme of nature, do the mighty ramparts of the
the Kal Mura and Kal Lada rivers, both containing vast sheets of water in the
rainy season.
1 Vide Proc. of the Nov. 1891, and Asiatic Quarterly Review, OcL
1891.
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 [630v] (1277/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00004e> [accessed 2 April 2025]
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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