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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [634v] (1285/1814)
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.
258
PERSIA
eighty years, were turned out by the Vekil-el-Mulk. Bashakerd
remained virtually independent under Seif Allah Khan tdl 1874,
but then also succumbed. More furtive aggressions have since
been pursued in the north, particularly on the Mashkid river.
But encroachment in these, regions is more pardonable, if not
more legitimate, since, as I have pointed out in my chapter on
Seistan, no frontier has either been drawn or exists for the 200
: miles of territory between the Kuh Malek-i-Siah, where Goldsmid’s
Seistan boundary terminated, and the confines of -Talk. Goldsmid
was prepared to fill the hiatus ; but nothing has ever been done ;
v.” an d sooner than trace on my map a purely hypothetical line which
: | . r& ^ y means nothing, I have preferred to leave the border m this region
what it is, a blank. , .
Having thus narrated the history of the formation of a Persian
' t A province of Beluchistan, I pass to a short account of its features
U , l an d people. The area of the province has been estimated
*•"- i , A ^ at 60,000 square miles, as contrasted with the 80,000 of
'X V : y people Kelat. In this extent of country may be encountered
almost every variety both of scenery and climate. The Mekran
Desert, composed of thin particles of wind-driven sandhis com
parable, on a small scale, with those larger expanses which have
been previously described. On the other hand, here are consider-
able rivers, great mountains, and in parts abundant cultivation.
Rocks, rivers and trees combine in places to supply an entrancing
landscape, but are succeeded by arid bluffs and naked ravines.
On the coast the heat is sometimes terrific; and at Jalk m
summer-time the exhausted gazelles are said to lie down on the
plains, and suffer themselves to be captured by the hunter. In
the mountain plateaux a cooler and most agreeable temperature is
encountered ; while eternal snow whitens the caps of the highest
peaks. The prevailing tribe is that of the Beluchis, who give
to the country its name. They claim to be Arabs by descent, of
the Koreish tribe, and allege an ancestral migration at the end o
the seventh century from the neighbourhood of Aleppo, whence
their tradition represents them as having been expelled by the
Khalif Yezid for taking the part of the martyred Husein. No
record, however, exists of their journey, or of the people whom
they found on their arrival; and from the evidence, both of their
physiognomy and of their language, which is an Aryan or Aryanised
tongue, akin to Pehlevi or old Persian, the hypothesis must be rejected
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 [634v] (1285/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000056> [accessed 18 July 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