Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [632v] (1281/1814)
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.
254 PERSIA J
Belucliistan comprises the Gedrosia, and parts of the Dran-
giana, of the ancients; and it is a significant illustration of the
Record of obscurity that has rarely lifted from these regions, and of
travel the precarious political existence which till lately they
enjoyed, that the words of Gibbon, written of a period 1700 years
ago, were equally applicable to their condition up till the middle
of the century still unexpired :—
We can scarcely attribute to the Persian monarchy the sea coast of *
Gedrosia or Macran, which extends along the Indian Ocean from Cape
Jask to Cape Gwadel. In the time of Alexander, and probably many
ages afterwards, it was thinly inhabited by a savage people of ichthyo-
phagi, who knew no arts, who acknowledged no master, and who were
divided by inhospitable deserts from the rest of the world. 1
It is an extraordinary, but nevertheless a true fact, that from
the time of Alexanders march through Gedrosia, and the naviga
tion of his admiral Nearchus along its shores, we have no record
of the visit of a European to the interior of Beluchistan until 1809.
In that year Sir J. Malcolm, who had just been appointed on his
third mission to Persia, anxious to discover what overland routes
there might exist from Persia to India, for the possible advance of
French or Russian armies, deputed Captain Grant (who was after
wards murdered in Luristan) to report upon Western Beluchistan.
In the following year, Pottinger and Christie volunteered for a
similar mission in Eastern Beluchistan, and started forth disguised
as the European servants of a Hindu horse-dealer of Bombay.
Pottinger, having parted from Christie at Nushki, subsequently
continued his journey through what is now Persian Beluchistan in
(1810), Travels in Beloocliistan\ Haji Abchm Nabi (1838-9), Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, vol. xiii. 1844; Colonel E. C. Ross (1867), Proceedings of the
R.G.S., vol. xvi. pp. 139-219; Sir F. Groldsmid (1861-1871), Correspondence on the
Progress of Persia in Mehran and West Beluchistan (Bombay Government), 1869; .
Eastern Persia, vol. i., Introduction; Journal of the B.G.S., vol. xxxiii. p. 181,
vol. xxxvii. p. 269, vol. xliii. p. 65; (Sir) O. St. John (1872), Eastern Persia, vol. i.
pp. 18-117; Major B. Lovett (1870-1), Proceedings of the R.G.S., vol. xvi. p. 219,
Journal, vol. xlii. p. 202; Colonel Euan-Smith (1870-1), Eastern Persia, vol. i.
pp. 143-225 ; E. A. Floyer (1876), Unexplored Baluchistan ; A. W. Hughes, The
Country of Balochistan, 1877; Major Mockler, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
(new series), vol. ix. 1877, p. 121, vol. xi. 1879, p. 129; Mirza Mehdi Khan, ibid.
vol. xi. p. 147; A. Gasteiger (1881), Von Teheran nach Beludschistan. The travels
of Captain Jennings and Lieutenant Galindo (before quoted) have not been pub
lished.
1 Beeline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. i. cap. viii.
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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- 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
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