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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [649r] (1314/1814)
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.
f
r
THE SOUTH -WESTERN PROVINCES 283
fighting when the chance occurs, or smoking in contented idleness
at the tent door.
thorn the Feili I pass to the Bakhtiari Lurs , 1 about whom I
shall have much to say that is both interesting and new. Only
The twenty-five years ago Mr. Watson, in his History of Persia,
Bakhtiaiis orL r 0 C Q r R that c of their race and country very little
is known, and, with the exception of the scholarly writings of
Eawlinson and Layard, discoverable only, until the latter published
his absorbing work entitled i Early .Adventures , 5 in the Proceedings
of Scientific Societies, and of Baron E)e Bode 5 s book, I know of no
work on Persia until the newly published and excellent volumes of
Mrs. Bishop, that attempts to give an account either of their history
or features. Here, therefore, I invoke the friendly concern of my
readers, while I endeavour to fill what is perhaps the most notable
existing gap in our knowledge of Iran . 2
The Bakhtiari habitat is the belt of mountainous country
between the district of the Feili Lurs and the alluvial plains that
Their slope to the Gulf. More strictly defined, it is bounded
country by two li neS5 wfiic]^ following the prevailing trend of the
mountain chains from north-west to south-east, may be said to
extend from Burujird to the outskirts of Isfahan on the north, and
from Dizful and Shushter to Ram Hormuz and the Behbehan
In local phiaseology Bakhtiari has recently come to be used, as a territorial
rather than an ethnical designation. Mussulman seyids, and even Armenians
living in the Bakhtiari country, will call themselves Bakhtiaris, though they would
angrily repudiate the title of Lur. The name Bakhtiari appears now to be chiefly
applied to the inhabitants of the districts east of the Kuh-i-rang—i.e. the upper
valleys of the Karun and its tributaries—while those to the west, in the direction
of Arabistan, are more commonly knov/n as Lurs.
2 The only original sources of information of which I am aware concerning the
Bakhtiaris are as follows : J. S. Stocqueler (1831), Fifteen Months' Pilgrimage,
vol. i. p. 116 et seq. ; Aucher Eloy (1835), Relations de Voyages en Orient,
pp. 270-85, 329-31; (Sir) H. Bawlinson (1836), Journal of the R.G.S.,vo\. ix.;
(Sir) H. Layard (1840-1), IUd., vols. xii. and xvi. ; Early Adventures, 2 vols.;
Baron C. A. De Bode (1841), Travels in Luristan, 2 vols.; E. Duhousset, Etudes
sur les populations de la Perse, 1863; A. H.‘Schindler (1877), Zeit, der Gesell.
fur Erd. zu Berlin, vol. xiv. ; E. Stack (1881), Six Months in Persia, vol. ii.
caps. iii. iv.; Captain H. L. Wells (1881), Proceedings of the R.G.S (new series),
vol. v.; Colonel M. S. Bell (1884), Blackwood's Magazine, April, June, and July,
1889; A. Bodler (1887), Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1889; Aeademische Anzeiger,
Vienna, No. xxi. 1888; H. F. B. Lynch (1889), Proceedings of the R.G.S. (new
series), vol. xii.; Mrs. Bishop (1890), Journeys in Persia, 2 vols., Letters xiv.-xx.
My own information is largely derived from personal inquiry and from unpub
lished sources.
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 [649r] (1314/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000073> [accessed 9 July 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