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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [636r] (1288/1814)
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.
THE EASTEEN AND SOUTII-EASTEEN PEOVINCES 261
about thirty females. There is also a variety of palmetto or
dwarf palm, more strictly one of the aloe family, known as pish,
which grows in rank abundance along the river beds. Its leaves
are made use of for every variety of purpose by the Beluchis, par
ticularly when soaked and beaten out into separate fibres for ropes
and cordage, and are also twisted up into sandals, with which the
peasants are shod. A dense growth of acacia, mimosa, and
tamarisk jungle grows wherever there is water, a variety of the
latter tree having a straight stem like a poplar.
The country may be roughly divided into three sections or
belts, distinguished by their different elevation and features. Of
these the coast strip has always been known as Mekran. 1
The name is employed by the natives themselves of
Mekran
different parts of the country; but its strict application appears
to be to the zone, some sixty to seventy miles in average width,
which slopes upwards from the coast to the scarp of the main
Beluch plateau, and varies in height from one to five hundred
feet. This strip consists of a series of long parallel sand-chains,
separating shallow valleys, for the most part bare and barren,
until we come to the depression at the base of the border
scarp, which is well-watered, and dotted with numerous villages
and date groves. On the whole this belt has relatively not much
to complain of in respect of water; Colonel Boss in his journey
along the coast from Jask to Gwadur, a distance of 300 miles,
having encountered eight considerable rivers. The water supply,
however, is ill-regulated and unsteady; and during much of the
year the river beds are empty, or contain only disconnected pools.
Mekran might easily be made far more fertile than it is at present.^
There is splendid pasturage for camels, and sheep and goats are
numerous; while date groves and grain crops spring into life at
the very sight of water. In Mekran a different dialect is spoken
1 Marco Polo (book iii. cap. xxx.) called it Kesmacoran, i.e. Kej'Mekran. The
same double name has been applied to it by Ibn Batutah, Sidi Ali, Sherif-ed-Din,
and P. della Yalle. The name Mekran has been commonly, but erroneously,
derived from Mahi Khoran, i.e. the fish-eaters, or iclitliyojriiagi, which was the
title given to the inhabitants of the Beluchi coast-fringe by Arrian. But the
word is a Dravidian name, and appears as Makara in the Brhat Sanhita of Varaha
Mihira in a list of the tribes contiguous to India on the west. It is also the
Ma/capTjj/rj of Stephen of Byzantium, and the Makuran of Tabari and Moses of
Chorene. Even were it not a Dravidian name, in no old Aryan dialect could it
signify fish-eaters.
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 [636r] (1288/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000059> [accessed 30 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