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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [683r] (1382/1814)
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 KAREN RIVER
331
conditions have very greatly changed since the majority of their
narratives were written, and the drama of life is fast nearing the
close of a chapter whose leaves will presently be turned back and
sealed for ever. A riparian population of Arab tribes under native
sheikhs, who sustain a fitful and expiring independence against
the ever advancing encroachments of Persian governors and tax-
collectors ; an inland population of nomad tribes, of mixed origin
and reluctant loyalty, who in their native hills still retain their old
clan organisation and a vagrant liberty of life ; townspeople, half
Arab and half Persian, whose character is as composite as their
origin; these ingredients alone suggest a tableau of dramatic out
line and vivid contrast. How much more complex and absorbing
is it bound to become when an outside competitor, in the person
of Great Britain, steps upon the scene !
The Karun river is described in text-books of geography as
the only navigable river in Persia. Rising in the knotted mountain
The Karun r ^nge to the west of Isfahan, from which I have briefly
nver traced its passage in the previous chapter, it pursues a
westerly course through wild gorges and upland plains, until,
emerging from the hills immediately to the north of Shushter, it
turns sharply to the south and, after adorning that town with the
waterworks that have rendered it famous in history and still leave
it respectable in decay, pursues a sinuous course over the wide
alluvial plain that stretches to the Shat-el-Arab and the Persian
Gulf. On the way it receives, at Bund-i-Kir, its main affluent, the
Ab-i-Diz, or river of Dizful; whilst lower down its channel is in
terrupted, and navigation is impeded, by the renowned rapids
of Ahwaz. At the river-port of Mohammerah it flows into the
estuary by wTiich, forty miles lower down, at Fao, the combined
waters of the Tigris and Euphrates enter the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
.
Berlin, 1879, pp. 38-67 and 81-124; Journal of the R.A.S., vol. xii., p. 312. Pro
ceedings of the It.G.S., March 1883, containing : Paper by Col. J. Bateman-Cham-
pain ; Speech by Mr. G. S. Mackenzie ; ‘ Surveying Tours in South Persia,’ by Major
H. L. Wells. Mme. Dieulafoy, La Perse^X^l ; A Suse, 1888. Col. M. S, Bell, Y.C.,
Blachwood's Magazine, April 1889. Gen. Sir R. Murdoch Smith, Chamber of Com
merce Journal, March 5, 1889; Journal of the Society of Arts, May 10, 1889.
W. Tomaschek, Topogr. Erlduterung der Kiistenfahrt Nearchs, 1890. Mrs. Bishop,
Journeys in Persia, 2 vols., 1891. Perhaps I may be permitted to add to this
bibliography my own contributions on the same subject, which have been partly
utilised for this chapter : Letter xi. of the series on Persia in the Times, February
4, 1890; ‘ Leaves from a Diary on the Karun River,’ Fortnightly Review, April
and May 1890 ; ‘ The Karun River,’ Proceedings of the R.G.S., September 1890.
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 [683r] (1382/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x0000b7> [accessed 4 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