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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [640r] (1296/1814)
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 SOUTH-WESTERN PROVINCES
ined in a
r
loes the
altitude,
e rigour
ie racial
md the
a phe-
ation of
laid its
^nglish-
popula-
settlecl,
3 being
ilies, in
f space.
, is the
on the
3 le area
j bleak
at, and
he im-
nove in
arrying
; nd ex-
yj have
; where
ish) i* 6 *
26^
winter), and yeilak (from yil, i.e. year), are Turkish words em
ployed for the tribal haunts at the two periods. The Persian
words garmsir (warm region) and sardsir (cold region) cover a
similar application. At the division of the seasons the nomads
may be encountered upon the march, their black goats’-hair tents,
as easily pitched as struck, dotting the slopes, and thousands of
sheep and goats heralding or encumbering the column. Even
at other times in almost every province of Persia, but particularly
in those which I now approach, the traveller off the beaten track
will alight upon their encampments, and may study in nineteenth
century duplicate the pastoral economy of the books of Genesis or
Job.
A perusal of the pages of this work will have shown that the
population of Persia is in no sense of a homogeneous description.
F o re icm Placed as her territories have been in the track of
elements armies, they have been repeatedly overrun, and at times
held in long-enduring pawn. As the human tide has ebbed and
flowed, it has deposited large portions of its burden upon Persian
soil; and the mere spectacle of a country, owning an Iranian
majority among its people, an Arabian religion, and a Turkish
ruling dynasty, is enough to indicate a history of storm. It is
from the foreign elements thus imported into Persia, and there, so
to speak, precipitated and left, that the nomad portion of her
present population is chiefly, though not wholly, derived.
Roughly speaking, the tribes of Persia 1 are susceptible of a
fourfold classification—Turks (i.e. offshoots of the great Turki or
Tribes of Turkoman or Tartar stock, not to be confused with the
Persia Osmanli branch of the same root) ; Arabs, Beluchis, and
a great nameless class, sometimes described as Leks, by those who
defend their common Iranian origin, more commonly known by the
names of their various constituent elements, the principal of which
are the Kurds and Lurs, with the Feilis, Bakhtiaris, Mamasennis,
etc., as sub-divisions of the latter title. In a greater or less
1 Of the few existing accounts of the tribes of Persia, I can only cite the
following as in the least satisfactory: Sir J. Malcolm (1800-10), History, vol. ii.
cap. xxiii.; M. Jouannin in Dupre’s Voyage en Perse (1808) ; J. P. Morier (1814-
15), Journal of the R.G.S., vol. vii. pp. 230-42 ; C. Ritter (1838-40), Die Hrdhunde
ron Asien, vol. vi.; Sir J. Sheil (1840-50), Note to Lady Shell’s Glimpses of Life;
Comte J. de Rochechouart (1865), Souvenirs, cap. iv.; and F. Spiegel, Eranische
Aiterthumshunde, vol. i. Ritter’s is the most comprehensive account, and corre
sponds more nearly than the others to the status quo.
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 [640r] (1296/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000061> [accessed 15 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