Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [642v] (1301/1814)
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.
274
PERSIA
and although in these pages will be presented more aids to know
ledge than can elsewhere be found, yet I cannot profess to lift the
curtain of an inscrutable past. Are they Turks ? Are t ey er-
sians? Are they Semites? All three hypotheses have been
urged They appear to belong to the same ethnical group as the
Kurds, their neighbours on the north ; nor does their language,
which is a dialect of Persian, differ materially from the Kurdish
tongue. 1 On the other hand, they themselves consider it an msmt
to be confounded with the Kurds, whom they call Leks; and the
maiority of writers have agreed in regarding them as the veritable
relics of the old Aryan or Iranian stock, who preceded Arabs,
Turks, and Tartars in the land. Kawlinson says that their language
is descended from the old Farsi, which was coaeval with, but chs-
tinct from, the Pehlevi tongue in the days of the Sassanian kings.
Whilst, however, we may accept this as the most probable hypo
thesis, and may even be led thereby to regard with heightened
interest these last survivals of an illustrious stock, we are not com
pelled to endorse the conjectural connection of Bakhtian with
Bactria, which has been propounded by some writers, 2 or to localise
their ancestral home. It is sufficient to believe that they are
Aryans by descent, and to know that they have lived for cen
turies in their present mountains. The word Feili means a rebel,
while the word Lur is commonly applied as a synonym for a boor
by the modern Persians, who detest the Lurs almost as cordialh
as tliey are detested by tkem. .
Of the numbers of the Lurs it is scarcely possible to speak with
greater confidence. In 1836 Eawlinson gave the numbers of the
Feili Lurs and their dependencies as 56,000 families ; in
Numbers Layard returned them as 49,000 families. In the
same years respectively, Rawlinson gave the totals of the Bakhtians
and their dependencies as 28,000 families, Layard as 37,700 families.
A calculation made in 1881 fixed the total of persons as follows:
Feilis and dependencies 210,000; Bakhtiaris and dependencies,
170,000; Kuhgelus, etc., 41,000; grand total of Lurs, 421,000.
I am disposed to think that this is an exaggerated census;
> Rich, the traveller In Kurdistan, declared that the Bakhtiaris were Kurds
(Narrative, etc., vol. i. p. 130).
2 Some have gone so far as to base on this resemblance the assertion that tn
Bakhtiari are the relics of one of the Greek colonies left by Alexander m Asia, an
hypothesis for which the further support is claimed of a similarity in the weex
and Bakhtiari national dances.
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 [642v] (1301/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000066> [accessed 7 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
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