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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [683v] (1383/1814)
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
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!
332
PERSIA
With ancient history, and with the disputed questions of the
Ulai or Eulasus, the Coprates, the Choaspes, the Pasitigris, and
Ancient tlieir identity with the modern river-beds in the Tigris
channels anc I Euphrates delta, I shall not greatly trouble my
readers. The channels, and even the entire course of the rivers of
Susiana—where from time to time great masses of snow-fed
water are suddenly propelled through a sandy and friable soil, and
where vast artificial irrigation works have sometimes reversed the
dispositions of nature—have shifted frequently and irrecognisabiy.
Unless we adopt this explanation, which charity as well as nature
recommends, we shall be forced to the conclusion that the ancient
chroniclers and geographers who dealt with these rivers were a
very muddle-headed set of people; an hypothesis to which I am
only inclined by the discovery that the majority of their modern
successors have been guilty of confusions at least as startling, but
over which the impulse of common impartiality tempts me equally
to draw a veil. I will merely say that I identify the Karun with
the Pasitigris (i.e. Lesser Tigris ), 1 up which Nearchus sailed with
the Macedonian fleet to join Alexander. Other historical identifica
tions will be reserved for the foot-notes as I proceed.
Here we may take up the history of the Karun river at the
moment when it first concerns ourselves, and when its commercial
Early advantages began to be recognised, not by the British
negotia- public, who are habitually ill-informed, but by the few
pioneers whose invariable fate it is to be snubbed by
their own generation and applauded by the next. It is j ust fifty
years since the immense latent value of the Karun trade route, as
an avenue of expeditious approach to the great cities and centres
of grain cultivation in the west of Persia, and as an opening
more especially for British and Anglo-Indian commerce, was first
brought prominently before the attention of Englishmen by the
united labours and writings of Sir H. Layard and Lieut. Selby.
The former of these explorers, from his intimate relations, both
with Mohammed Taki Khan, the great Bakhtiari chieftain, and
with the merchants of Shushter, was enabled to guarantee Persian
reciprocity in any such enterprise; and he penned at the same
1 Pas (vulgo 2 >ast) and pastar are still used in modern Persian to signify in
feriority. The same meaning—i.e. Lesser Tigris—was expressed in the name,
given by others to the Karun river, of Dijleh Kudek, and in the Arab designation
Dojeil.
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 [683v] (1383/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x0000b8> [accessed 2 April 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