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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [641r] (1298/1814)
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 271
occur in the provinces to which my survey of the Persian dominions
has now brought me. Here are to be found at once the most
interesting, the most original, and the least generally known, of the
subjects of the Shah.
Before I proceed to their examination, let me premise that
nomad life everywhere in Persia (and, indeed, wherever I have seen
it, the Bedouin of Arabia and the Turkoman of the Desert
General
character- presenting much the same characteristics) exhibits certain
common features which are predicable of it, independently
of race and politics. These are features, firstly, of organisation,
and secondly, of character. Tribal and clan feeling is very strong.
A patriarchal form of government, i.e. deference to elders or headmen,
successively of the household or tent, of the village or camp, of the
clan, and of the tribe, is universal. Obedience and loyalty are ob
served within these limits, but not outside them. Taxation is onlv
successfully exacted by a Government that employs this machinery ;
and the intrusion of a civil revenue officer would be a perilous ex
periment. A military contribution is commonly exacted by the
State, its selection and equipment being left to the chief. The
semi-independence thus created renders the nomad tribes very
sensitive of restraint and prone to rebellion, the more so as Govern
ment interference has never in Persia presented itself to them
except in the guise of mean and odious interference with their
cherished privileges, of ready-lipped perfidy, or of heartless extor
tion. Undeniable virtues of character are balanced in them bv
frank and unrepented vices. They are hospitable, domestic, simple-
minded, innocent of the foul debaucheries of the city Persian. On
the other hand, they are rough, ignorant, aud sometimes fierce,
they glory in plunder, 1 and are, in many cases, adroit thieves.
Little practical religion is known to them but that of blood, which
vents itself in family feuds, pursued with unslaked ferocity till
1 Many amusing stories are related of the hereditary taste for plunder of the
nomad Asiatic tribes. Malcolm took one of their chiefs to India in 1801, and
asked him what he thought of Calcutta. His eyes glistened, and he replied,
‘ What a noble place to plunder! ’ This reminds one of the anecdote of the
Frenchman, who, when conducted to the polished granite tomb-chamber in the
heart of the Great Pyramid, exclaimed, ‘Quel joli emplacement pour un billard!’
A similar story is related of an Uzbeg chief, who, hearing Begi Jan of Bokhara
dilate upon the sweets of Paradise, asked him if there was any chapau, or
raiding, there. ‘ No,’ was the answer. ‘ Ah, then,’ he said, ‘ Paradise won’t do
for me.’
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 [641r] (1298/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000063> [accessed 7 April 2025]
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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