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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [633r] (1282/1814)
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.
255
THE EASTERN AND SOUTH-EASTERN PROVINCES
the disguise of a Mussulman pilgrim. To him we owe the first
reliable information about the country. In 1831, Haji Abdun Nabi,
an intelligent Afghan, was sent on a similar tour by Major Leach'
the British Resident at Kelat. Next, in the year 1861, Sir R
Goldsmid appears upon the scene, charged with the investigations
preliminary to the construction of a telegraphic wire along the
Mekian coast from Kurrachi to Gwadur, extended later on to
Jask, and for ten years he remains our authority, the surveys
made and knowledge acquired by him during that period supplying
the basis for the Boundary negotiations, and ultimate definition in
1870-1, to whicli I now turn.
In the first half of the eighteenth century, Beluchistan, i.e. the
country between the Helmund and the Arabian Sea, and between
History of Kerman and Sind, had, in common with its neigh-
•encroach- ^ ours > fallen a W Q J to the resistless prestige of Nadir
Shah. He constituted it a separate government or de
pendency, giving it the name which it has ever since borne, from
the most numerically important of its tribes, and appointing Nasir
Khan Brahui, Beglerbeg of all Beluchistan in 1739. As long as
Nadii lived, therefoie, the newly created province was undoubtedly
subject to Persia. Upon his death, however, and in the general
break-up that ensued, the astute satrap of Beluchistan at first paid
allegiance to the Afghan sovereignty of Ahmed Shah Durani, as
the most powerful neighbouring dominion; and later, upon its
collapse, asserted his own independence. After his death in 1795
all pretence either of internal unity or external suzerainty vanished :
the Beluchi chieftains, according to their strength, started business
each on his own account; and the country was a prey to turbulent
factions and tribal feuds, Persia being at that time too weak
even to dream of interference. Such was the condition of affairs
when Grant and Pottinger visited Beluchistan. There was no sign
of Persian authority at the sea-ports ; and the chiefs of Bampur,
Geh, Bahu, and Serbaz were all independent. It appears to have
been in the reign of Mohammed Shah (1834-1848), who, though
utterly deficient in military instincts or capacity, had the most
extravagant ambitions for conquest, and thought himself qualified
to pose as a second Nadir Shah, that the Persian pretensions to
authority in Beluchistan were first seriously revived. The chief of
Bampur having made an incursion into the province of Kerman, a
Persian army was sent to inflict condign punishment and to reduce
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 [633r] (1282/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000053> [accessed 5 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