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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [687r] (1390/1814)
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 KAKUN RIVER
335
cutting its own course in the year 1880. The Shat-el-Arab, as is
well known, is the estuary by which the mingled waters of the
Euphrates and Tigris, uniting at Kurnah, the legendary Garden of
Eden, fifty miles above Busrah, descend to the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
. Its
northern bank is Persian, to a point upon the river beyond
Mohammerah; its southern bank is Turkish throughout. At its
entrance from the sea it presents the appearance of a noble river,
a mile in width, flowing between low banks which, especially on
the Turkish side, are fringed with a dense and magnificent belt of
date palms. The opposite shore is more sandy, and is marked by
the occasional tomb of some departed saint.
The Tin ks m these parts are disposed to be very nasty towards
the Persians, against whom they have cherished a particular grudge
Turkish ever s i nce cession of the port of Mohammerah to the
fort at Fao latter by the joint Anglo-Russian Commission more than
forty years ago. They are jealous of the intrusion of any other
power upon the Shat-el-Arab ; and they are still more jealous of
the rising fortunes of Mohammerah itself, which, in the event of
any considerable development of the Karun trade route, will divert
much of the traffic that now finds its way to Busrah and Baghdad,
and, through their Custom-houses, to and from the Persian interior.
Accordingly, they adopt every means in their power of hampering,
irritating, and menacing their rivals’ interests ; the most con
spicuous illustration of this attitude being the erection of a large
fort upon a shelving sandspit at Fao, absolutely commanding the
entrance to the Shat-el-Arab on the south. By a clause in the
Treaty of Erzerum (1847) Turkey and Persia, the two contracting
powers, bound themselves by a reciprocal engagement not to erect
fortifications on either bank of the estuary, Great Britain and Russia
being the two witnessing parties ; and the action of the Turks
appears consequently to be a violation of this agreement, which is
not atoned for by their complacent invitation to the Persians to go
and do likewise. In 1886 they commenced the construction of the
fort, and in spite of frequent protests since, both from the English
and Persian Governments, met by the traditional diplomatic dis
claimer from Constantinople, they have now completed it to a point
at which the guns only are wanting to render it a serious and
intolerable menace both to their Persian neighbours and to the
interests of the British trade and shipping engaged upon the
Mesopotamian rivers. Some time ago an English telegraph-clerk
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 [687r] (1390/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x0000bf> [accessed 5 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