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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [673r] (1362/1814)
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.
I
'
THE SOUTH-WESTERN PROVINCES 319
ethnological or other difference between the two tribes). Their
total number was estimated in 1884 as 19,000. They have been
even more celebrated for their predatory and lawless habits than the
Kuhgelu, and have always found both a rallying-place and a retreat
in their celebrated hill-fortress of Kaleh or Diz-i-Sefid, the White
Castle (so called from the colour of the rock), in the mountains,
some fifty miles to the north-west of Shiraz. This wonderful natural
stronghold—like those already described, an isolated hill summit
with perpendicular sides, accessible only by a few ledges for the
skilful climber, and by a single path hewn in the face of the rock,
and defended by towers and a gateway—has played a conspicuous
part in Persian legend and history. The great Rustam only took it
by stratagem, introducing his soldiers in salt-bags placed on camels. 1
It arrested for a while the armies of Alexander. Timur captured
it by the aid of Badakshan climbers. Macdonald Kinneir, who
visited it in 1810, with Colonel Monteith, found it defended by huge
stones poised along the brink of the precipice and ready, as in the
story of Delphi, related by Herodotus, to be rolled over. Towards
the latter part of Path Ali Shah’s reign the Mamasennis, under
a redoubtable robber chieftain named Veli Khan Bakash, were
in constant rebellion. An army of Azerbaijan troops marched
against them, and besieged the Kaleh Sefid, which was at length
forced to surrender. Nearly 100 of the Lur women, however,
sooner than fall into the hands of the Turkish soldiery, hurled
themselves with their children from the summit and perished. In
1840 the Mamasennis were still yaghi ; and we hear of Manucheher
Khan, the Motemed-ed-Dowleh, as glutting his naturally ferocious
appetite by building 300 of them with mortar into a living tower.
Still they continued unsubdued until Ferhad Mirza meted out to
them the same drastic measure as he also dealt to the Kuhgelu;
since which time they have abandoned the game of plunder and
rebellion, and now content themselves with pastoral occupations
and the habits of peace, the route from Shiraz to Behbehan being
as safe as that from Shiraz to Bushire. In 1881 some of this
tribe were encountered by Captain Wells between Kazerun and
Fahliun ; and he described them as ; the finest-looking men he
had yet seen in Persia, with a handsome Jewish cast of countenance,
very aquiline noses and long beards; the moustaches drooping
and lighter coloured ; the hair also light brown ; the eyes often
1 Shah Nameh of Firdusi.
i
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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 [673r] (1362/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x0000a3> [accessed 6 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