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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [636v] (1289/1814)
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.
‘■sar’asw
262
PERSIA
The
Beluch
plateau
from Northern Beluchistan, and is supposed to be a patois of
Persian intermingled with Indian words, or vice versa.
Above Mekran and along the entire extent of Beluchistan, both
Persian and Kelati, extends the elevated area, 3,000 to 4,000
feet in height, of what has been designated the Beluch
plateau. North of the scarp, which constitutes the water
parting, the rivers—as, for instance, the Bampur and
Mashkid flow away from the sea, and are ultimately lost m large
hamuns or swamps, which at different periods of the year present
the appearance of vast lagoons and shallow marshes.
Merging on the north in the plateau of Persian Beluchistan is
the mountain region of Serhad, in reality trie southern prolongation
of the great elevated mass forming the highlands of
Serlmd K p orasan . This remote and inaccessible district has long
baffled the zeal of European explorers, Pottmger and St. John
having both tried in vain to enter it. At length in 188o Captain
R. H. Jennings, an officer deputed by the Indian Government, was
the first to penetrate its mysteries, and to give to it an existence
on the map. Its local name is, not inappropriately, Yaghistan, i.e.
the country of the Yaghis, or outlaws of Beluchistan, Afghanistan,
and Seistan. He reported it to consist of a mountain plateau,
from 3,500 to 6,000 feet in height, surrounded by higher ranges,
beyond which are deserts on the north-east and west, while on the
south are the districts of Bampur and Dizak. It contains two of
the hamuns or swamps which I have mentioned, and, what is more
remarkable, an active volcano with three craters 12,681 feet in
height. This extraordinary mountain, at a distance of 200 miles
from the coast, might appear to violate the commonly accepted
theory of a subtle connection between volcanoes and the sea,
unless, which is probable, we suppose it to have stood upon the
southern shore of the great central sea of prehistoric Iran. It is
called the Kuh-i-Tuftan, and also the Kuh-i-Naushada, or moun
tain of sal ammoniac, that substance being obtained from its sides.
To the south-east between Bampur and Bam is another snow-
crowned peak, the Ivuh-i-Basman, which is an extinct volcano, and
rises in splendid isolation from the desert. Captain Jennings
found Serhad to be inhabited by Beluchi, Kurd, and Brahui tribes,
with an alleged total of 13,500 families. 1 All were Sunnis, all
1 This is, of course, a mistake. So, at the other extreme, is Mirza Mehdi
Khan’s estimate of 1,425 families.
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 [636v] (1289/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00005a> [accessed 12 December 2024]
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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