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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [648v] (1313/1814)
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.
282 PERSIA
section of this people, whose chief, Haji Ali Ivhan, tried to rob hinp
and worthily sustained the tribal reputation . 1 Nevertheless Colonel
Bell formed a favourable opinion of the Lurs as a whole, being
struck with their decorum and obedience in camp, with their
modest and frugal habits, and with their natural simplicity. They
are a lighthearted people, much addicted to singing and chanting;
and their rebellious and thieving propensities are more probably
due to the life of semi-outlawry which the suicidal policy of the
State has compelled them to lead, and to the licence that is born of
a self-acquired freedom, than to any ineradicable taint of vice.
The Eeili Lurs are smaller in stature than the Bakhtiaris further
south, and dress in brighter colours. Polygamy is the fashion
among them, the extent of the harem depending upon the wealth
of the lord and master. Colonel Bell’s rascally host, for instance,
possessed the respectable total of twenty-five wives. Their religion
is of the most nebulous description. Most are Shiah Mohamme
dans, but they entertain very little respect either for the Prophet
or the Koran, and have pirs or Holy men of their own, whose
tombs are regarded as sacred places, and the chief of whom, Baba
Buzurg, or the Great Father, is buried in their country. Traces of
Judaism have been detected in their worship, and have excited
those amiable theorists who ride the outworn hobby-horse of the
Lost Tribes; and there are also to be found among them Ali
Illahis, of which sect I have spoken in my chapter on Azerbaijan.
The females, after the fashion of all the Lur tribes, are unveiled,
and in youth are as well-favoured and comely as, at an age when
a western woman is at her prime, they become shrivelled and
decayed. Their costume is a loose shapeless dress, with little or
no underclothing. They lead a hard life, tending and milking the
flocks, churning the milk in suspended skins, and clarifying the
butter, assisting to pitch and strike the tents, and weaving carpets
and the black goats’ hair tents in which they dwell. These are of
all sizes and shapes, being supported by poles and partitioned by
carpets or matting into separate chambers for the women, the
kitchen, and the stables, a large diwan-hhaneh or reception
chamber being the first or outer compartment. In settled
villages, mat or mud huts take the place of the tent. The men
lead a life of robust but careless ease, sowing and reaping the crops
where tillage is possible, cutting wood for charcoal, robbing and
1 Blackwood's Magazine, April 1889.
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 [648v] (1313/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000072> [accessed 17 March 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